The objective of the present investigation was to study the effects of a 60-s interval of venous congestion between two noninvasive measurements of arterial blood pressure (ABP) on the fluctuation of ABP, assessed by the standard deviation of the differences between two readings. ABP was measured in 345 successive patients, at rest, four times each. For 269 participants, one pair of readings was obtained with a 60-s interval and the other pair without an interval. For 76 patients, the first

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... was read at the same interval, and the second pair had venous congestion interposed and there was no waiting interval. There was no increased ABP oscillation, either when there was no interval between ABP readings, or when venous congestion was interposed compared to pairs of ABP measurements performed with a 60-s interval. There was no increase in ABP oscillations when successive ABP readings were taken without an interval or even with venous congestion interposed. Contrary to the present belief, there seems to be no loss of reliability when blood pressure recordings are taken immediately one after another, in the clinical setting. Correspondence N.R. Koehler Av. Ipiranga, 6690, conj. 207 90610-000 Porto Alegre, RS Brasil