Difference in blood pressure between arms indicates future heart problems

4 March 2014

New research shows that a 10mm Hg difference in blood pressure between arms indicates a significant increased risk for future cardiovascular events.

This new study, published in The American Journal of Medicine,  examined 3,390 participants aged 40 years and older from the Framingham Heart Study. All subjects were free of cardiovascular disease at baseline, but the study showed that participants with higher interarm systolic blood pressure differences were at a much higher risk for future cardiovascular events than those with less than a 10 mm Hg difference between arms.

Researchers also found that participants with elevated interarm blood pressure difference were older, had a greater prevalence of diabetes mellitus, higher systolic blood pressure, and a higher total cholesterol level.

While a link between interarm blood pressure and cardiovascular risk was previously suspected, little data existed to support the hypothesis until now.

“In this large prospective, community based cohort of middle-age men and women free of cardiovascular disease, an increased interarm systolic blood pressure difference was found to be present in nearly 10% of individuals and is associated with increased levels of traditional cardiovascular risk factors,” explains lead investigator Ido Weinberg, MD, Institute for Heart Vascular and Stroke Care, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. “Furthermore, an increased interarm systolic blood pressure difference is associated with an increased risk for incident cardiovascular events, independent of traditional cardiovascular risk factors.”

According to these findings, investigators suggest practitioners should consider including blood pressure readings in both arms in order to get the most accurate readings possible and detect any differences in interarm blood pressure. “Even modest differences in clinically-measured systolic blood pressures in the upper extremities reflect an increase in cardiovascular risk,” says Weinberg. “This study supports the potential value of identifying the interarm systolic blood pressure difference as a simple clinical indicator of increased cardiovascular risk.”

Reference

Ido Weinberg, Philimon Gona, Christopher J. O’Donnell, Michael R. Jaff, Joanne M. Murabito. The Systolic Blood Pressure Difference Between Arms and Cardiovascular Disease in the Framingham Heart Study. The American Journal of Medicine, Volume 127/Issue 3 (March 2014) published by Elsevier. DOI:  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2013.10.027

 

 

To top