Required Tools

• In this method, the basic requirements include a cuff and a sphygmomanometer. An inflatable cuff is placed on the bicep of the person whose BP is being measured. Place the cuff at exactly the height of the heart. The cuff is attached to a a vertical glass tube containing mercury. The rubber bulb that is attached to the cuff should be squeezed with your hand until the artery is fully occluded. This is indicated by the level of the mercury.
  
  

Process

• Once the mercury reaches the level marked on the blood pressure reader, gradually and slowly, stop squeezing the rubber bulb. This reduces the pressure on the cuff and allows the blood to start pumping again. A pounding sound is heard in the stethoscope when the blood begins pumping. The sound that is heard at this point gives you the systolic measurement. When the pressure on the cuff is totally reduced until it reaches zero, the diastolic number can be read.
  
  

Results

• Although some variations are to be expected depending on your state of mind, physical exertion, mood, time of the day, posture and other related factors, a reading of 120/80 at rest is considered normal. When your blood pressure falls out of that range, or when the reading is high consistently when measured over several readings when you are at rest, the number you arrive at has to be reported to your doctor, who will decide whether to classify you as a hypertensive. It is important to note that occasional high readings do not make a person a hypertensive.
  
  In exceptionally rare cases when the patient shows no signs of a problem even when the reading is abnormally high, the patient has to be examined for calcification in the arteries. In other rare cases, when the patient is in an intensive care unit and requires continuous monitoring, a pressure probe is introduced in the artery of the wrist or the thigh.