What is Oscillometric Method of taking Blood Pressure?

Oscillometric method is one of the methods that falls among the non invasive category. This method involves observing the oscillations in a sphygmomanometer which are generally caused by oscillations in the flow of the blood felt in the form of a pulse. Oscillometric method is utilized in several electronic blood pressure recording instruments and is meant for long term measurement of blood pressure in clinics and hospitals. In general, no special skill is required to use an oscillometric instrument to measure blood pressure. As such it is widely used in automated patient home monitoring.  A cuff is used even in this method and looks similar to the one used in the Auscultatory method. A pressure sensor is generally used to monitor the pressure in the cuff and the values of the pressure vary periodically based on the cyclic expansion and contraction of the artery. This creates an oscillation and results are computed using an algorithm. In some cases where the patients suffer from heart and circulation problems, the readings may not be accurate. It is highly important to properly calibrate the apparatus using this method for blood pressure measurement. This is due to the fact that improperly calibrated apparatus yields wrong readings of the blood pressure.