They’re up in arms! Researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine say accurate blood pressure readings depend on proper arm positioning — and many patients and practitioners are getting it wrong.

A patient's arm resting in their lap could erroneously bump up both the top and bottom number — known as the systolic and diastolic pressure, respectively — by about 4 millimeters of mercury ...

Certain arm positions during blood pressure checks may lead to inaccurate readings, a new study finds.Researchers discovered two positions, in particular, that may affect your numbers. Experts explain ...

The study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine on October 7, focused on how arm position during blood pressure screenings could skew the results. In the first scenario, ...

To learn whether arm position made a difference in blood pressure readings, Brady and her colleagues recruited 133 adults, 78% of them Black and 52% female. The study volunteers’ ages ranged ...

A new study found that having your arm in the wrong position during blood pressure checks — either at home or the doctor’s office — can result in readings “markedly higher” than when ...

Arm Position and Blood Pressure Readings - The ARMS Crossover Randomized Clinical Trial.Image Credit: PK289 / Shutterstock. In a recent study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine ...

The study involved 133 adults, predominantly Black and female, aged 18 to 80. Participants had their blood pressure measured in three different arm positions: resting on a surface, resting on ...

Arm position affects blood pressure accuracy because it influences the reading’s relationship to heart level, says Danielle Belardo, M.D., preventive cardiologist in Los Angeles.