why is blood pressure not measured in psi?

666 views

why is blood pressure not measured in psi?

In: Biology

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Before digital blood pressure measurement tools became widely available, the device used to measure blood pressure would literally consist of a column of mercury, and the pressure would just be the height of that column (millimeters of mercury = mm Hg).

Obviously now it can be anything but healthcare workers are very familiar with what normal values are in mm Hg so it’s easier to ask the computer to do the math rather than have people doing unit conversions in their head.

Anonymous 0 Comments

It can be measured in psi, but millimeters of mercury (mmHg) is the traditional unit, back when pressure was literally measure using a column of mercury that raised or lowered based on the pressure. There’s no particular reason to change units over and there would be a lot of work involved in retroactively changing medical records, so there’s no gain for changing the units.