The tool used to measure blood pressure is called

They come in two variants:. Full-automatic blood pressure monitors: These devices have an electric pump for inflating the cuff. The operation of the device is very easy and requires minimum inputs from the user. Once the cuff is placed on the upper arm, the device can be switched on and the reports are produced automatically. Semi-automatic blood pressure monitors: The user has to inflate the cuff manually by hand using the bulb like a conventional device.

Once inflated, the device can then start deflating the cuff automatically and beyond this point the reading is produced in a similar way as an automatic device. These devices consume less power and can be more suitable for field operations where resources might be limited.

Wrist blood pressure monitors: These are digital blood pressure monitors that work similar to upper arm blood pressure monitors. It can be used by individual who find arm based devices uncomfortable or painful. However, medical experts do not recommend these devices for everyone, due to the possibility of receiving false reading due to improper use. Blood pressure monitors are very sensitive to body position and special care should be taken during their use in order to get accurate readings.

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Top 10 dangerously Share this article Pinterest. Last Reviewed on: Apr 3, Medically Reviewed by: Dr. Are aneroid sphygmomanometers accurate in hospital and clinic settings? Arch Intern Med. Accurate cuff size in blood pressure measurement. Am J Hypertens. The Accuracy of Alternatives to Mercury Sphygmomanometers. It is then wrapped around the patient's upper arm and is inflated in order to constrict the arteries.

When the cuff is fully inflated with air, the doctor places a stethoscope over the brachial artery in the crook of the patient's arm. As the air in the cuff is slowly released, the first sound the doctor hears through the stethoscope is the systolic pressure.

As the air continues to be released from the cuff, another point is reached when the doctor no longer hears any sound. This marks the diastolic blood pressure. A thermometer is one of the most commonly used tools by doctors.

It is a doctor's tool that measures the body temperature. They come in the following types:. Oral and rectal thermometers: A conventional oral or rectal thermometer consists of a sealed glass tube containing a liquid like mercury. Imprinted on the tube is a temperature scale. When the temperature rises or falls, the mercury will expand or contract, causing the mercury to move up or down the thermometer's tiny passageway. The rectal thermometer is typically a little more accurate than an oral thermometer.

Digital thermometers: Today thermometers are available that have digital displays. It is much easier to read the temperature this way. A beeper signals when the thermometer has finished registering the temperature. These thermometers come with flexible tubes that resist breakage. Ear thermometers: Eardrum thermometers are very precise and read infrared radiation that emanates from the eardrum tissue. Basal thermometers: These thermometers measure minor changes in temperature in a woman's body to indicate to her whether ovulation, or when an egg has been released from a woman's ovary, has taken place.

A woman's temperature may rise slightly when ovulation occurs and will not return to a normal temperature until the beginning ogf menstruation. Basal thermometers are quite sensitive and will monitor even the slightest temperature change. One very important tool used by a doctor is an ophthalmoscope, which examines the interior portion of the eye including the retina, optic nerve and lens 2.

A common clinical ophthalmoscope, which can be found in your family physician's office, consists of a concave mirror along with a battery-powered light that is housed within the handle 2. The doctor peers through one monocular eyepiece into each eye of the patient. This tool has been developed with a rotating disc of lenses which permits the eye to be examined at different magnifications and depths. For a doctor to use this tool efficiently, a patient may have to have eye drops that will dilate the pupil as well as enlarge the opening into the eye's inner structures.

The scale of the pressure meter ranges from 0 to mmHg. The pressure meter has a rubber pump on it for inflating the cuff and a button for letting the air out. To measure blood pressure, the cuff is placed around the bare and stretched out upper arm, and inflated until no blood can flow through the brachial artery. Then the air is slowly let out of the cuff.

As soon as the air pressure in the cuff falls below the systolic blood pressure in the brachial artery, blood will start to flow through the arm once again. This creates a pounding sound when the arteries close again and the walls of the vessels hit each other after a heart beat.

The sound can be heard by placing the stethoscope close to the elbow. Right when you start to hear this pounding for the first time you can read your systolic blood pressure off the pressure meter.

The pounding sound stops when the air pressure in the cuff falls below the diastolic blood pressure in the brachial artery. Then the blood vessels remain open. Right when the pounding stops, you can read the diastolic blood pressure off the pressure meter.

In Germany and other countries, people with high blood pressure can attend patient education courses that teach a number of things, including how to measure your blood pressure. As part of specialized disease management programs DMPs for people who have narrow coronary arteries coronary artery disease, CAD , statutory health insurers offer additional healthcare services. These include patient education about high blood pressure.

If a doctor recommends ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, you will need to wear a blood pressure cuff for 24 hours. It's connected to a small, portable measuring device that automatically measures your blood pressure at set times and records the readings. Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring is used, for example, to see whether blood pressure levels vary greatly over the course of the day and night or whether they are constantly elevated.

During those 24 hours, you can do all of the usual things you would otherwise do over the course of the day. If you are especially active at certain times, you can make a note in a diary. Then the doctor has a better idea of how to interpret the recorded values when evaluating them. IQWiG health information is written with the aim of helping people understand the advantages and disadvantages of the main treatment options and health care services.

Because IQWiG is a German institute, some of the information provided here is specific to the German health care system. The suitability of any of the described options in an individual case can be determined by talking to a doctor. We do not offer individual consultations. Our information is based on the results of good-quality studies. It is written by a team of health care professionals, scientists and editors, and reviewed by external experts. You can find a detailed description of how our health information is produced and updated in our methods.

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