Comparison of the conical cuff and the standard rectangular cuffs.

In this study the applicability of the conical cuff in the measurement of arterial blood pressure in the general population was investigated. A wide range of arm circumferences was used for non-invasive comparative measurements of brachial artery pressures, using the standard rectangular sphygmomanometer cuffs and a recently developed conical cuff. In previous studies the conical cuff proved to reflect arterial blood pressure more accurately in obese patients than the standard rectangular cuffs. With the conical cuff lower systolic and diastolic pressure readings were obtained than with the rectangular cuffs and this proved to be independent of arm circumference. The lower pressure results in obese individuals were probably related to the fact that the conical cuff generally was found to fit better on larger upper arms than the large rectangular cuff. We conclude that in all likelihood blood pressure is more accurately measured in obese people with the use of a conical cuff and therefore warrants further investigation.