• S M de Oliveira.
• Rev Esc Enferm Usp. 1996 Apr 1;30(1):167-9.

AbstractThe hypertensive disorder of pregnancy is one of the most important complications of the pregnant cycle, presenting high risk of morbidity and mortality to the mother and the child. The marks of the systorical blood pressure and diastorical blood pressure are the parameters to diagnose the hypertensive disorder of pregnancy. Then, the precise measure of the blood pressure is an essential condition for the clinical evaluation of the pregnant woman during the antepartum course, in order to diagnose in advance, the hypertensive disorder of this period, since the raising in the blood pressure is normally the first clinical sign of the sickness (National High Blood Pressures Educational Program, 1990). The interest in the evolution of the blood pressure during the pregnancy is very old, since 1884, when Schedoff and Porockjakoff pointed out the attention to the association of the raising in the blood pressure with eclampsia (HENRY, 1936). Since then, many studies about the modification of the blood pressure caused by the pregnancy have been published, in order to recognize pathological diversions that characterize the hypertensive disorder of pregnancy. Although, the researchers are trying to identify an exact limit of the normal blood pressure during the pregnancy, there is a gap in the adaptation of the cuff to the circumference of the arm. In spite of the recommendation by the American Heart Association in 1951, which says that the width of the cuff should be 20% bigger than the diameter of the arm, no comparative study about the marks of the blood pressure during the pregnancy taken with a cuff of correct width and with a cuff of standard width, was found in the specific literature. (BORDLEY III et al., 1951) Comparing the indirect measure of the blood pressure taken with a cuff of correct width and taken with a cuff of standard width, ARCURI (1985) observed in 404 normotensive and not pregnant women between 17 and 59 years old underestimation of the blood pressure, especially in those women with thin arm. The co-relation is opposite to the circumference of the arm, what means that the smaller is the circumference the higher is the underestimation. Considering there is an underestimation of the levels of the blood pressure, when the large cuffs are used, it is called into question the jeopardy of the early diagnosis of high blood pressure of thin pregnant women. Based on the consideration presented, this study has the aim of evaluating the measurement of the blood pressure on pregnant women by using cuffs adequate to the circumference of the arm. The population of this study will be healthy pregnant women, with one alive fetus, registered in the antepartum course service of a maternity and of a community center in São Paulo city.

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