A new study from the British Medical Journal Lancets claims that checking the blood pressure in both arms is important as a difference between the two is an important indicator of vascular disease.
Although interesting, I don’t think this is a worthwhile endeavor and it sounds more like an academic exercise in ‘publishing’ than anything really worthwhile.
The reason I say this is that patients with the potential of vascular disease are generally well known to their doctors: they are the ones with difficult to control blood pressure, evidence of vascular disease in their legs, and smokers. Generally, doctors don’t need to see that difference in blood pressure between the two arms to identify these patients.
So…..don’t expect me to check the blood pressure in both arms routinely….it is unecessary.