Hypertension not always genuine, can be a case of misdiagnosis too: Experts

Representational image

New Delhi: A new study conducted by researchers from Canada says that people receiving treatment for high blood pressure may actually not be suffering from it.

Researchers at the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM) found that more than half of family doctors in Canada are still using manual devices to measure blood pressure, a dated technology that often leads to misdiagnosis.

Automated measurement has the advantage of eliminating what is known as white-coat syndrome, which refers to artificially high blood pressure resulting from the stress of being in a doctor's office and human interaction.

The researchers believe that clinicians should adopt these devices to detect individuals likely to suffer from high blood pressure, researchers said.

Blood pressure is defined as the pressure that the blood exerts on artery walls.

Measured in the arm artery, it is expressed in two numbers: the value when the heart contracts (systolic blood pressure) and the value when the heart relaxes between two contractions (diastolic blood pressure).

Blood pressure is considered normal when systolic pressure is below 140 millimetre of mercury (mmHg) and diastolic pressure is below 90 mmHg.

Above these values, a person is said to have high blood pressure (hypertension).

The technology behind tensiometers or sphygmomanometers, the devices used to measure blood pressure, has changed a great deal over the last 20 years, researchers said.

Today, automatic electronic measuring devices, known as oscillometric devices, are available, researchers said.

(With PTI inputs)