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Blood pressure

My health care practicioner suggested that I take my blood pressure twice daily with the home monitoring set,  My readings are often higher at night and also higher in the right arm.   Example:  left arm at 7 AM  118/68
right arm 126/80   then in the evening at 10:30 left arm: 123/66, right arm: 151/88?  Is this significant?   If not what could the possibilities be?


This discussion is related to Re: Blood pressure consistently higher in right arm in the last 2 months..
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144586 tn?1284666164
For a lay person, it is inappropriate to take blood pressures in both arms.

The pressure should be taken in the same arm, generally the left, and that figure must be recorded with the pulse. A blood pressure without a pulse is completely meaningless. The pulse should be recorded and noted as being regular, irregular, or regularly irregular.
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159619 tn?1707018272
COMMUNITY LEADER
I also take mine daily and track the results. The differences between the arms is not very large. This is really only significant when the difference is more like 20 - 30 points. A small difference is most likely due to the vascular structure differences between the arms or anxiety. Keep in mind, the second reading when done immediately after the first is almost always higher so switch doing the right and left arm first.

As far as timing, your blood pressure will almost always be at it's lowest in the morning, that's normal. The most important thing is to take it at the same time every day and track the numbers. I use the blood pressure tracker on this site, it works well. If you're going to do twice daily readings you'll need to set up two profiles. Feel free to take a look at mine if you like.

Good luck,

Jon
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Avatar universal
Hi, I believe the morning/evening difference to be a normal and common occurence.

The difference in the pressures of each arm could be due to a blockage in the deeper blood vessels. I'm not a cardiologist but maybe this is also the reason for your high bp.

You should definately get this checked out.
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