small and it will give inaccurately high readings. The cuff must be carefully placed: never over clothing, and if a rolled-up sleeve is at all tight around the arm then clothing must be removed. Furthermore, you should be seated comfortably for five minutes before the reading is taken, and during measurement your arm should be at the level of your heart. Another factor is angst -- one in five patients found to have high readings in a doctor's office is eventually found to have normal blood pressure, a condition known as 'white coat hypertension'. Many surgeries avoid this by asking nurses to take the readings (as they seem to provoke less anxiety than doctors) and asking patients to take their own measurements on an automatic machine at home. However, with that said, I find it reassuring that the manual reading gave the very normal result of 136/70 -- good news indeed. Only a further series of readings -- say half-a-dozen -- will confirm this lower reading, and it is important to obtain these over a period of time. Until recently, we would be reassured by at least one normal reading, as in your case, but there is an emerging view that when some readings are high it is best to investigate further -- better safe than sorry. So it may be worth buying an electronic monitor from a chemist, if you can afford one (they usually cost around 30). A series of readings can be taken, obeying all the above