Background: Two-piece blood pressure (BP) cuffs are the historical cuff standard. Use of 1-piece cuffs is increasing. Substituting 1-piece for 2-piece cuffs has an unknown effect on measurement accuracy.
Overcuffing (using a larger blood pressure cuff) significantly reduces auscultatory blood pressure readings, while its impact on oscillometric measurements was previously unexamined.
The study involved community-dwelling adults with normal arm circumferences and compared standard and large cuffs, confirming a reduction in auscultatory readings by about 3.6/2.8 mm Hg.
In oscillometric measurements, results showed that using the large cuff yielded readings that were 5.5/3.4 mm Hg lower than the standard cuff, indicating overcuffing introduces a notable downward bias and highlights the need for clear size limits on oscillometric cuffs.