Table a1 Summary of excluded studies
From: Prevalence and clinical implications of the inter-arm blood pressure difference: a systematic review
Reference (country of origin) | Study population | Reason for exclusion | Sample size | Prevalence of systolic differences | Prevalence of diastolic differences |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Phipps (1915)34 (USA) | Mixed in-patients | Sequential measurements | 36 | 20%⩾10 mm Hg | Not stated |
Cyriax (1918)35 (UK) | War wounded | Sequential measurements | 36 | 72%>5 mm Hg | Not stated |
Cyriax (1920)2 (UK) | Post-Surgical in-patients Many war trauma. Mainly with ‘unilateral’ wounds | Sequential measurements | 73 | 83%⩾10 mm Hg 20%⩾20 mm Hg | 81%⩾10 mm Hg 12%⩾20 mm Hg |
Cyriax (1921)33 (UK) | Private practice (93) and in-patients (35): Unilateral or bilaterally unequal surgical cases | Sequential measurements | 128 56 | ‘Confirmed previous findings’ | ‘Confirmed previous findings’ |
Bilaterally equal and constitutional disorders | 78 | 35%⩾10 mm Hg 7%⩾20 mm Hg | 45%⩾10 mm Hg 4%⩾20 mm Hg | ||
Kay and Gardner (1930)38 (USA) | General medical practice, opportunistic sample | Sequential measurements | 125 | 12% >20 mm Hg | 13% >10 mm Hg |
Korns and Guinand (193l)31 (USA) | Healthy University students, 73% male, mean age 20 | Simultaneous but single pair of measurements | 1000 | 22.2%⩾10 mm Hg | 21.7%⩾10 mm Hg |
Southby (1935)53 (Australia) | Patients attending one general practice | Sequential measurements | 516 | Differences above 20 mm systolic or 10 mm diastolic in 60% of cases | |
Israel (1944)39 | Hypertensives, population not defined | Sequential measurements | 125 | 18.4% >20 mm Hg | 2.4% >10 mm Hg |
Rueger (1951)54 (USA) | Office patients | Sequential measurements | 755 | 50%>10 mm Hg 13.6% >20 mm Hg | 33.7% >10 mm Hg |
Swallow (1975)(letter)50 (UK) | General practice, 50–54 year old males | Measurement technique not stated | 33 | 76%⩾10 mm Hg | |
Kristensen and Kornerup (1982)43 (Denmark) | Highly selected normotensive patients without signs of CVD Unselected normotensive in-patients Hypertensive out-patients Hypertensive out-patients | Sequential measurements | 55 23 57 62 | 34.5%⩾10 mm Hg 3.4%⩾20 mm Hg 60.9%⩾10 mm Hg 26.1%⩾20 mm Hg 49.1%⩾10 mm Hg 15.8%⩾20 mm Hg 5.2%⩾30 mm Hg 59.7%⩾10 mm Hg 25.8%⩾20 mm Hg 8.1%⩾30 mm Hg | 14.5%⩾10 mm Hg 43.5%⩾10 mm Hg 8.7%⩾20 mm Hg 29.8%⩾10 mm Hg 5.2%⩾20 mm Hg 1.8%⩾30 mm Hg 37.1%⩾10 mm Hg 12.9%⩾20 mm Hg 1.6%⩾30 mm Hg |
Hashimoto et al. (1984)42 (USA) | Elderly residential home residents attending for BP checks. 50% were hypertensive | Sequential measurements | 174 | 20%⩾10 mm Hg 3.4%⩾20 mm Hg | 9.7%⩾10 mm Hg |
Gould et al. (1985)46 (UK) | Hypertensives | Simultaneous random zero measurements with two observers | 91 | Dismissed differences over 20 mm as erroneous, found no apparent mean differences over 10 mm systolic or diastolic. Individual measured differences were 8% readings >10 mm Hg systolic and 3% diastolic. Concluded that no bias is introduced by making measurements in different arms | |
Goldhill (1986)47 (USA) | Not stated | One observer listening to bilateral dopplers Review of recordings of dopplers and pressures | 52 68 | 37%⩾6 mm Hg 13%⩾11 mm Hg 6%⩾6 mm Hg None>9 mm Hg | |
Yagi et al. (1986)45 (Japan) | Convalescent stroke in-patients | Simultaneous automated measurements | 47 | Mean 131/83 in paretic arms, 129/78 in intact arms, P<0.01/P<0.001 | |
Frank et al. (1991)36 (USA) | Peripheral vascular disease in-patients Coronary heart disease in-patients Controls: orthopaedic & urology in-patients | Sequential measurements | 58 38 38 | 21%⩾20 mm Hg 41%⩾10 mm Hg 16%⩾10 mm Hg 3%⩾20 mm Hg 13%⩾10 mm Hg 0%⩾20 mm Hg | 31%⩾10 mm Hg 4%⩾15 mm Hg 5%⩾10 mm Hg 3%⩾15 mm Hg 5%⩾10 mm Hg 3%⩾15 mm Hg |
Fotherby et al. (1993)41 (UK) | Elderly in & out-patients Young in & out-patients | Simultaneous automated measurements | 40 40 | 10%>10 mm Hg None | None |
Panayiotou et al. (1993)48 (UK) | Hemiplegic in-patients following acute stroke | Simultaneous automated measurements | 15 | No correlation with side of paresis, mean inter-arm difference 4.4/4.7 mm Hg | |
Singer and Hollander (1996)55 (USA) | Ambulant patients over 5 years old attending university hospital emergency department | Sequential measurements Single (not repeated) simultaneous automated indirect | 300 310 | 13.3%>20 mm Hg 11.6% >20 mm Hg | 28%>10 mm Hg 20.6% >10 mm Hg |
O’Shea and Murphy (2000)49 (Ireland) | Patients attending for ambulatory BP monitoring | Sequential measurements | 39 | 33%⩾10 mm Hg | |
Clark (2001)59 (UK) | General practice | Sequential measurements | 205 | 31%⩾10 mm Hg 4%⩾20 mm Hg | 13%⩾10 mm Hg |
Cassidy and Jones (2001)56 (UK) | General practice | Sequential measurements | 237 | 23%⩾20 mm Hg | 40%⩾10 mm Hg |
Pesola et al. (2001)44 (USA) | Normotensive patients attending ER and staff accepting BP screening | Sequential measurements | 100 | 15%⩾10 mm Hg | |
Clark and Powell (2002)20 (UK) | General practice | Sequential measurements | 280 | 40.7%⩾10 mm Hg 13.6%⩾20 mm Hg | 23.2%⩾10 mm Hg |
Pesola et al. (2002)57 (USA) | Staff and visitors to an ER with history of hypertension willing to be screened | Sequential measurements | 100 | 18%⩾10 mm Hg | |
Shadman et al. (2004)29 (USA) | General population Vascular patients | Sequential measurements | 2975 1248 | 1.9%>15 mm Hg 7.1%>15 mm Hg | Not stated Not stated |
Arnett et al. (2005)58 (USA) | Random population sample Hypertensive siblings | Sequential measurements | 824 2195 | 9.2%>10 mm Hg 1.1%>20 mm Hg 14.2%>10 mm Hg 1.8%>20 mm Hg | 1.6%>10 mm Hg 0>20 mm Hg 2.8%>10 mm Hg 0.1%>20 mm Hg |
