The word comes from the Greek sphygmós (pulse), plus the scientific term manometer (pressure meter). So the gargantuan name is for a gadget that measures blood pressure. The original manual device was invented by Samuel Siegfried Karl Ritter von Basch, so I suppose with a name that long his device would have a long name as well!! In 1896 along came Scipione Riva-Rocci, an Italian physician, who introduced a version that was easier to use.

Blood pressure is a tricky thing. Although it can be easily read by just about anyone, it is open to the interpretation of the operator. To get a really accurate reading you'd have to be quite invasive. This means a device must be inserted into an artery and the blood pressure constantly read. However, the most common way to measure blood pressure is to use the sphygmomanometer, (it's that word again!). A trained medical practitioner would do this because it isn't anything a layperson can do easily. Apart from that, it's very hard to buy one at the chemist!

The cuff, a sort of inflatable tourniquet, is placed around the upper arm, right or left, at roughly the same vertical height as the heart while the subject is seated with the arm supported. The cuff is inflated with a hand pump until the blood flow is stopped. Listening with a stethoscope to the brachial artery at the elbow, the examiner slowly releases the pressure in the cuff with a release valve. As the pressure in the cuffs falls, a "whooshing" or pounding sound is heard, which means that the blood flow has started again. Using the mercury column pressure-measuring device attached to the cuff, the pressure reading at which the blood flow started again is noted as the 'systolic' blood pressure. The cuff pressure is then further released until the "whooshing" sound can no longer be heard and this is recorded as the 'diastolic' blood pressure.

So, if your diastolic has been measured as 70mmhg and your systolic as 120mmhg or 120 over 70 as it is normally called, then top marks, take a bow, your blood pressure is normal. If it is more than 130 over 85, then time to do something about it. Actually, what is 'normal' will vary with age and all sorts of other factors so these figures are only generalisations.

Now, modern science has finally caught up with Herr Ritter Von Basch's invention and we now have the electronic automatic version. It uses a cuff in the same way but all you have to do to take a reading is push a button. Even I can do that! The device will automatically pump up the cuff to blood flow cut off and then release the pressure and take the readings. On the screen it will tell you your blood pressure and heart rate. You buy one at the chemist but it is probably not as accurate as the manual device, because it actually takes an average pulse reading and derives the diastolic and systolic, but it does enable you to have one in the first aid kit and keep a reasonable eye on your own blood pressure whenever you want. Most modern devices will average the last three results, so whenever you want a more accurate reading, do it three times. Easy!

High blood pressure is known as 'the silent killer' because it has no symptoms. One day, without any warning, it will kill you. That is why it is important for everyone to keep an eye on his or her own blood pressure and the easiest way to do that is to buy your own meter. They are not very expensive and are easy to use.