Manual Sphygmomanometer by Rakesh Mishra

A manual mercurial or Aneroid Sphygmomanometer is a blood pressure measuring device operated manually rather than electronically. Ideally operated by a trained person, it consists of pointer dial gauge called manometer used in reading the blood pressure on a mechanical or digital display monitor. They are described as manual in the sense that the Cuff is inflated by squeezing the inflating a rubber bulb. Sometimes a stethoscope is attached to the device via a tube for the user to listen for the heartbeats. The obvious advantage and benefit of using a manual blood pressure monitors is that they do not require batteries. The mercurial type manometers have become and are considered to be the gold standard because their accurate measurements and often require minimal re-calibration. For this reason they are often used in clinical trials by pharmaceutical companies for clinical evaluations and the determination of high blood pressure risks to patients including pregnant women. Aneroid, (mechanical types with a dial) are also in common use, but they should be calibrated once a year against a mercury manometer. The units of measurement of blood pressure are in millimeters of mercury (mmHg) and are usually given as an even number. Manual sphygmomanometers require a stethoscope for auscultation. Although it is possible to obtain a basic reading through palpation, this only yields the systolic number.

The device was first invented by Samuel Siegfried Karl Ritter von Basch in 1881, later refined by Scipione Riva-Rocci who introduced a more easily used version in 1896. However, it was not until 1901 when Harvey Cushing refined this discovery and popularized it, best known as sphygmomanometer consisting of an inflatable cuff, a measuring unit (the mercury manometer, or aneroid gauge), and inflation bulb and valve, for manual instruments.

Operation of Sphygmomanometer
In humans, the cuff is normally placed smoothly and snugly around the upper arm, at roughly the same vertical height as the heart while the subject is seated with the arm relaxed and supported. Other sites of placement may differ depending the species. It is essential that the correct size of cuff is selected for the patient. Too small a cuff results in too high a pressure, whilst too large a cuff results in too low a pressure. The cuff is inflated until the artery is completely occluded. Listening with a stethoscope to the brachial artery at the elbow, the examiner slowly releases the pressure in the cuff. As the pressure in the cuffs falls, a "??whooshing"?? or pounding sound is heard, often referred to as (Korotkoff sounds), when blood flow first starts again in the artery. This procedure is called Non-Invasive. The pressure at which this sound began is noted and recorded as the systolic blood pressure. The cuff pressure is further released until the sound can no longer be heard. This is recorded as the diastolic blood pressure. In noisy environments where auscultation is impossible (such as the scenes often encountered in emergency medicine), systolic blood pressure alone may be read by releasing the pressure until a radial pulse is palpated (felt). In veterinary medicine, auscultation is rarely of use, and palpation or visualization of pulse distal to the sphygmomanometer is used to detect systolic pressure.

Significance of Sphygmomanometer
By observing the mercury in the column while releasing the air pressure with a control valve, one can read the values of the blood pressure in mm Hg. The peak pressure in the arteries during the cardiac cycle is the systolic pressure, and the lowest pressure (at the resting phase of the cardiac cycle) is the diastolic pressure. A stethoscope is used in the auscultatory method. Systolic pressure (first phase) is identified with the first of the continuous Korotkoff sounds. Diastolic is identified at the moment the Korotkoff sounds disappear (fifth phase).

MIC Global offers Sphygmomanometers and Blood Pressure Monitors; you can check these units at, http://www.micglobal.co.uk/sphygmomanometers-and-bp-monitors-c60.html for more details.


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