High Blood Pressure and Hypertension Forum - blood pressure in legs vs. blood pressure in arms

I am 29 years old pretty healthy(atleast I think I am) not overweight. I was taking my blood pressure today with my automatic blood pressure machine and my left arm blood pressure was about 120/79, which is at or about the same as my right arm (this is all done in the sitting position). I then took my blood pressure in my left leg, right at the ankle using my blood pressure machine and freaked out because my blood pressure there is something around 180/120. I took it again a couple minutes later, it dropped a little, but not much. I'm worried here and if anyone knows what could be wrong I'm all ears. Confused

Replies(2)

MandMs

replied on March 5th, 2008

Extremely eHealthy

Did you used an appropriate-sized cuff for blood pressure measuring in legs?
Where have you applied the cuff exactly?

rnmom

replied on June 7th, 2009

New User

Systolic blood pressure taken in the leg will run 10-20% higher than in the arm, but leg BP is normally measured with the cuff around the thigh and the stethoscope placed over the popliteal artery behind the knee. You can't use the same size cuff, either, or it will give you a false-high reading.

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