Medcan Introduces New Blood Pressure Screening Tool

By: Laura Byers, Clinic Nurse Manager

Blood pressure is an important indicator for a number of serious conditions.  High blood pressure can lead to heart attacks and strokes, and is the leading cause of chronic kidney disease. 

To measure our patients’ blood pressure more accurately, a new health screening tool has been introduced at the Medcan Clinic.  The BpTRU machine is used to measure blood pressure in people who often fall victim to ‘white coat syndrome’, which occurs when blood pressure increases only when someone is in the doctor’s office.  This syndrome is extremely common with as many as 20-25% of people diagnosed with hypertension having normal blood pressure readings at home (John Hopkins Health Alerts, 2011).    The BpTRU machine is used to help overcome ‘white coat syndrome’ by taking a series of automated blood pressure measurements while the client is still in the clinic.  It works by taking six blood pressure readings over various time intervals that range from every 1 minute up to every 5 minutes.  It discards the first reading and then averages out the rest of the readings to produce one final blood pressure measurement. 

This measurement has shown to be very accurate (Beckett and Godwin, 2005) and also has helped to decrease the need for 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure measurement devices. 

So next time you’re in the clinic, you may be advised to have your blood pressure measured by the BpTRU machine. It will take less than 30 minutes out of your day, but could make a big difference in your health!

References

John Hopkins Medicine.  (2006).  Should  you worry about white coat hypertension?  Retrieved from: http://www.johnshopkinshealthalerts.com/alerts/hypertension_stroke/JohnsHopkinsHypertensionandStrokeHealthAlert_202-1.html

Beckett, L. & Godwin, M.  (2005).  The BpTRU automatic blood pressure monitor compared to 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring in the assessment of blood pressure in patients with hypertension.  BMC Cardiovascular Disorders, 5 (18), 1471 -1477.