In the 2002 movie "The Rookie," Dennis Quaid plays a talented pitcher who never made it past the minor leagues because of a shoulder injury. But he promises the high-school baseball team he coaches that he'll try out to be a pitcher again if they win their district playoffs, which they do. One night, driving past a roadside digital speedometer, he decides to see if he still has what it takes. He gets out of the car, walks back from the sign, winds up and throws a ball. The sign lights up 76 mph. Disappointed, he sighs and walks past it to retrieve the ball. Unseen, the sign flickers and the "7" turns into a "9"-99 mph, a serious fastball.
Luckily, he eventually discovers that he does still have it-and the false reading doesn't keep him from pitching again. But there are times when not getting the right reading has more serious consequences.
A new study in The Journal of Clinical Hypertension found that many children who get a high blood pressure reading don't actually have hypertension. Researchers looked at data on over 755,000 kids ages 3-17 and found that, although nearly 25 percent of them had an HBP reading at their primary-care doctor's office, less than half were confirmed with a second check. And only 2.3 percent of those kids had sustained high blood pressure over time!
So, if your child gets a HBP reading, test again and if it's elevated, monitor over time to see if it stays high. If it does, do whatever is needed to get it under control.