Is the blood pressure different between the paralyzed and unaffected arms or legs?

OBJECTIVES

To investigate whether the blood pressure (BP) levels are similar between the paralyzed and unaffected arms or legs.

METHODS

This study enrolled 236 post-stroke patients with hemiplegic paralysis. Simultaneous four-limb BP was measured using four automatic BP devices for three times, and the average was used as final value. The inter-arm difference (IAD) and inter-ankle difference (IAND) were the BP difference between the arms or ankles, respectively. The difference between maximal BP reading and minimal BP reading was calculated as △BP to reflect the variation of three BP readings.

RESULTS

The paralyzed arm had similar mean SBP (134.8 ± 18.7 vs. 135.1 ± 19.0 mmHg, NS) and DBP (79.5 ± 11.3 vs 78.1 ± 10.4 mmHg, NS) levels as compared with the unaffected arm. Similarly, the mean ankle SBP (143.6 ± 19.1 vs. 143.7 ± 18.6 mmHg, NS) and DBP (77.9 ± 17.7 vs. 75.8 ± 11.1 mmHg, NS) in the paralyzed legs were also similar to those in the unaffected legs. The detection rate of systolic IAD ≥10 mmHg was 5.9% and that for systolic IAND ≥15 mmHg was 20.3%. Meanwhile, △SBP levels were similar between two arms or ankles.

CONCLUSION

In the post-stroke patients with hemiplegic paralysis, the SBP and DBP levels of the paralyzed and unaffected arms or ankles were similar.