How do you obtain a diastolic when pulse sound doesnt go away

[w3ndiscott]

I've had this happen to me a couple of times and I didn't know what to do. What do you do when you are taking someones blood pressure, you pump up the cuff and get the systolic number but the beat never goes away? How do you get the diastolic number?

[Tom123]

You listen for the "muffled" sound, and list that as the diastolic pressure. We actually have three reading for BP. ie -- 120/60/0.

Hope this helps.

[diane227, LPN, RN]

Sounds like diastolic hypertension.

[Virgo_RN, BSN, RN]

Sounds like diastolic hypertension.

If it were diastolic hypertension, wouldn't the korotkoff sounds end at a higher than usual number, like 100 or better?

I've never experienced the sounds never ending, but I have frequently heard them down into the 50s and even 40s sometimes. As one of the above posters mentioned, listen to the quality of the sounds. When they change from a nice crisp tapping to a more muffled sort of thump, that is probably the diastolic. Another option is to try the other arm, or get an automatic cuff to see what it says in comparison to your own (unless the person is in atrial fibrillation, then automatic cuffs tend to be inaccurate).