Editorial
Blood pressure measurement is changing!
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
As we move into the new millennium, the century old Riva-Rocci/Korotkoff technique of measuring blood pressure is changing. There are a number of reasons for this. First, mercury is a toxic substance, the use of which can no longer be countenanced in clinical medicine, and the traditional technique, despite a history of reputable service, is likely to disappear from clinical practice.1 2 Second, it is now recognised that though the old technique has given good service, it is fraught with inaccuracies,3 and accurate automated devices are becoming available to replace the mercury sphygmomanometer. Third, 24 hour ambulatory blood pressure measurement (ABPM) has highlighted the phenomenon of white coat hypertension, and more reliance is being placed on blood pressure behaviour than on casual measurement of blood pressure levels.4
Banning mercuryMercury is a toxic, persistent, and bioaccumable substance, many
tons of which are distributed throughout the world to hospitals and
countless individual doctors
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