Sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values of a forearm blood pressure measurement method in severe obesity.

For blood pressure assessment, it has been reported that forearm blood pressure measurement appears to be as valid as an upper-arm blood pressure measurement method in individuals with severe obesity when correlated to the intra-arterial method, considered as the gold standard. Sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values for the presence of systemic hypertension in 25 severely obese patients from 352 blood pressure measurements were calculated. The sensitivity (0.98) and the positive predictive value (0.93) for hypertension on forearm blood pressure measurements are excellent, indicating that the forearm approach is a promising alternative to systemic hypertension diagnosis in severe obesity.