Type the two numbers from your monitor — the working is shown under the answer.
From 128/82
MAP 97 mmHg · pulse pressure 46 mmHgFrom 128/82: the average pressure in your arteries over one heartbeat, and the gap between the top and bottom numbers.
Search for a “normal” pulse pressure and you will find 40 to 60, 30 to 50 and 30 to 40 mmHg, mostly with no source. None of them is a guideline line, so none is used here.
These two numbers come from one reading, and this page cannot tell you what is wrong or right with your circulation. If a reading worries you, take it to your doctor or pharmacist.
Formulas and sources checked 2026-10-10.
Quick answer: mean arterial pressure (MAP) = diastolic + (systolic − diastolic) ÷ 3, so 120/80 gives 93 mmHg. Pulse pressure = systolic − diastolic, so 120/80 gives 40 mmHg. There is no published target for either at home: the one MAP line in a guideline, 65 mmHg, is for patients in septic shock in intensive care, and the one pulse-pressure line, 60 mmHg or more, is a marker the European hypertension guideline lists in older adults — not a diagnosis.
How to use it
Type the top and bottom numbers from your monitor, or paste the pair into the first box. Both numbers appear with the sum written out, so you can check it by hand, and the line each one is compared with is named under it.
Mean arterial pressure
MAP is the average pressure in your arteries over one heartbeat. From a cuff reading it is estimated with the one-third rule: take the gap between the two numbers, divide it by three and add it to the bottom number. 128/82 gives 82 + 46 ÷ 3 = 97 mmHg. In intensive care it is measured directly from the pressure wave instead, and that is where it is used: the Surviving Sepsis Campaign recommends “an initial target mean arterial pressure (MAP) of 65 mm Hg” for adults in septic shock on drugs that raise blood pressure. That is a hospital target for very ill patients, so this page does not compare a home reading with it.
The one-third rule is an estimate. A study published in Heart in 2000 compared it, and a multiplier of 0.412, with MAP measured electronically. A calculator that uses 0.412 gives a slightly higher MAP from the same reading — 101 instead of 97 for 128/82 — which is why two MAP calculators can disagree by a few points. Both are shown here.
Pulse pressure
Pulse pressure is the gap between the top and bottom numbers: 128/82 is 46 mmHg. It tends to widen with age as the large arteries stiffen, and a review of arterial stiffness notes that brachial pulse pressure predicts heart failure and stroke in people with high blood pressure and in the general population. The 2018 European (ESC/ESH) hypertension guideline lists a pulse pressure of 60 mmHg or more in older adults as a marker of hypertension-mediated organ damage. That is the line this page uses, quoted as an open research paper cites the guideline.
Search for a “normal pulse pressure” and you will find 40 to 60, 30 to 50 and 30 to 40 mmHg, mostly without a source. None of those is a guideline line, and averaging them would produce a range nobody published, so none is used here.
How much of it is the monitor?
A validated home monitor may read each number up to 5 mmHg high or low on average. If both are off in the same direction, MAP moves by up to 5. If they are off in opposite directions, pulse pressure moves by up to 10 — so a pulse pressure of 56 and one of 62 can be the same arteries on two different readings. Take several readings, as for any blood pressure question, and check your cuff fits your arm.
Worked examples
120/80. MAP 80 + 40 ÷ 3 = 93 mmHg (96 with 0.412). Pulse pressure 40 mmHg, below the 60 mmHg marker.
150/80. MAP 80 + 70 ÷ 3 = 103 mmHg. Pulse pressure 70 mmHg — at or above the 60 mmHg the European guideline lists in older adults. Worth showing your doctor with your other readings; it is not a diagnosis.
186/94. Above 180/120 on the top number: the page puts the NIH’s instruction first — no symptoms, wait five minutes and measure again; with a sudden severe headache, chest or back pain, difficulty breathing, numbness, a change in vision or trouble speaking, call 911 (UK: 999).
FAQ
How do I calculate mean arterial pressure?
What is a normal mean arterial pressure?
What is pulse pressure?
Is a pulse pressure of 60 high?
Why does another calculator give a different MAP?
Can I trust these numbers from a wrist monitor?
More from the site
For the reading itself, the Blood Pressure Reading Checker shows the band it falls in, and the Blood Pressure Log averages a week of them. Choosing a monitor: Wellue vs Omron, Beurer vs Omron and how an oximeter differs from a blood pressure monitor.