Blood pressure measurement in the year 2008: revival of oscillometry?

In this issue of the Journal, attention is given to some aspects of blood pressure (BP) measurement by oscillometry. In fact the oscillometric principle is a very old one and some of our elderly colleagues may remember the application in the oscillogram, used when a patient was suspected of having one-sided leg ischaemia. In such cases, oscillations in BP were different between the two legs, i.e. the affected leg showed oscillations with a smaller amplitude. When BP is measured oscillations are visible from suprasystolic to infradiastolic BP, but the oscillations show varying amplitude, as can be seen in figure 1, a well-known registration from the work of Geddes' group. H i s T o r Y