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Standard blood pressure measurements taken with the cuff on the arm may be inaccurate in women and may be significantly underestimating their true blood pressure, according to Canadian research. The researchers compared people's blood pressure measured using an arm cuff, with the blood pressure measured inside their arteries during surgery. They found that while men's blood pressure readings were largely accurate, women's often underestimated their true blood pressure. They found that this difference was mostly explained by the fact that women were shorter, with differences in height being linked to underestimation of blood pressure using the arm cuff. The authors say this could partly explain why women are at higher risk of cardiovascular diseases for a given blood pressure reading.
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