Comparison between blood pressure readings using a mercury versus an aneroid sphygmomanometer

OBJECTIVE For more than a century since its introduction, mercury sphygmomanometer (HgS) had been the mainstay for office measurement of blood pressure (BP). In light of the environmental and health hazards associated with mercury, there is a need to replace it with mercury-free alternatives all over the world. We aimed to validate the widely used aneroid sphygmomanometer (AnS) by comparing its BP readings against BP readings taken with an HgS. METHODS We compared the BP readings using AnS vs. HgS on a sample of 300 patients of 18 years or older age admitted to a tertiary care hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. RESULTS The differences between mean HgS and AnS BP readings were found to be statistically significant (P-value