Blood Pressure Meters

[allenlondon]

Mrs A has trouble putting on our conventional cuff BP monitor.

Are the wrist ones any good? They would seem easier to put on.

A

[lady-janine]

Sorry don't know as never seen them use. I'm sure some one will be able to help you. Good luck.

[allenlondon]

Amazon reviews include several which say doctors don’t like them.

[waterboatman]

The wrist ones are not as accurate or reliable.

[rowanwitch]

Not brilliant as they tend to read low, however if you need a regular reading then one you can use properly is better than one where the cuff might not be in the right place or not closed correctly. It will at least show a trend which over time might be as useful. I'm guessing from previous post you want to check if meds are working as they should so a trend up or down is adequate for this.

[Sqad]

Agree totally with rowan.

[allenlondon]

There is a fancy Omron cuffless version which somehow grips your upper arm in the 'right' position.

Amazon.co.uk User Recommendation

Silly price, but might do the trick.

A

[Toorak]

Allen

I can’t comment on that monitor but just wanted to say that your obvious devotion to your wife is very touching x

Merry Christmas to you both

[allenlondon]

Toorak. 51 years is a hard habit of devotion to break. She's back from hospital, with untreatable leaking heart valves, so 'keeping an eye' assumes more importance than usual.

Thanks for your acknowledgement...


A

[MargoTester]

Allen could you put the armband on for your wife? Just make sure the pipe is in the middle of the front of the arm. I struggle with mine sometimes and OH helps

[MargoTester]

Allen I'm so sorry to read that, your post was not there when I started typing

[allenlondon]

Can do, margo, but our Omron is probably 25 years old, and now her BP is so critical we might think a new one would be best all round.

Point being with most people BP alterations are just something to note and tell the doctor about; if Mrs A's plunges (as it did sometimes in hospital) it could be a blue-light job.

A

[dannyk13]

allen, if you are going to replace the monitor I recommend that you stick with Omron.

[bhg481]

Your Amazon link doesn't say it's cuffless; indeed the sketch at the top seems to show a normal fitting. My wife always does my blood pressure even though I'm not at all incapable (I think I just like the attention).

[MargoTester]

Allen one thing you could do is ask your doctor/ nurse to calibrate your machine against the one in the surgery to see how accurate it is. They must obviously know how critical her BP is.

[bhg481]

That's a good idea from Margo.
We bought our first monitor many years ago when they were still thin on the ground. It gave readings much lower than the doctor was getting with his classic sphygmo, so we took it back to Boots who promptly gave us a replacement. That, too, gave low readings so we nervously asked our doctor if we could take it to the surgery and compare it with his readings. He was quite excited at the opportunity, having never used one of the new type. The readings all agreed so the doctor concluded that she has "white coat syndrome" where simply seeing the doctor puts up your blood pressure.
I'm sure your own doctor will be just as accomodating as ours was.

[Hazlinny]

I have never found the wrist monitor to be reliable - always gives low readings. One GP told me that they are no good as they are affected by nerves in the wrist! Why manufacture them then??

[Buenchico]

I find that the readings from my wrist-cuff monitor are very similar to those that I get from upper arm monitors at hospital clinic sessions and at my GP's surgery.

As Sqad frequently points out, BP readings are only a snapshot of your blood pressure at a particular time. If your BP is, say, 140/85 when you take a reading (by whatever means), it could well be 130/80 or 145/88 just a few minutes later. So even if a BP monitor is inaccurate by a few percentage points, it's not really going to make much difference.

Medical professionals are unlikely to be interested in precise figures anyway. To them, readings of 120/80, 115/78 and 124/83 all say exactly the same thing. (i.e. 'Normal'). Similarly readings of 140/85 and 145/88 are likely to interpreted in similar ways. (i.e. 'A bit above where they should ideally be, and probably worth trying to bring them down a bit, but not immediately alarming').

So there's no real need for home BP monitors to render absolutely precise readings.

[furrypusscat]

We have a Braun monitor. We check our BP every Monday morning and my husband fastens the cuff for me as I find it difficult. I position the tube in between my little finger and ring finger whilst husband secures the cuff. It works very well as I suffer 'white coat syndrome' so by checking weekly at home we know if there is any possible problems. Thankfully we are both fine.

[Sqad]

Good post by Buenchico.