BP monitor - how to check calibration?

[Andrew]

did you watch the needle, or look away ?.

She might have just cleaned your arm with meths and nothing else.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Brian Gaff expressed precisely :

I have to take one of those per day, beginning last Thursday -I don't have a cough.

They began me on Amlopodine 1 per day, 18 days ago.

I don't think the Ramopil dilates, the Amlopodine was supposed to do that - so they said.

[alan_m]

In my experience it's all down to the skill of the person taking the blood sample. The last few times when I've been for blood tests the samples have been taken quickly with no real pain or after effects. However, I've also had blood samples taken by trainees and that has been a different experience.

It's much like dentists - some jab a full foot of needle into your gums and some just scratch the surface. The result is the same with regards numbing the gums/teeth but one is painful and the other painless.

[alan_m]

I watched the needle go in :)

[Harry Bloomfield]

RJH has brought this to us :

You may be right, they gave me a tablet to 'take as necessary' to control the vertigo. I tried it all ways and it had no effect, didn't help at all, but I was promised they would try to address it better, once my BP was under control.

Last evening, I decided to do some research on the cause(s) of vertigo. I intend trying the fixes suggested online.

I documented it for a friend, using none tech terms...

It is also called Brandt-Daroff exercise, this...

The NHS?s version of the method..

The flickering left and right of the eyes, is called nystagmus. That caused by your brain trying to make sense of the confusing signals from your eyes, versus the conflicting signals from your benign paroxysmal positional vertigo from the canals behind your ears. Eyes say you are the right way up, your ear sensors say you are leaning at an odd angle. I have had a few bouts of nystagmus, when the vertigo has been at its worst.

Loose particles in the canal flow at a different speed past the filament sensors in the canals, compared to the fluid, confusing the receptor filaments in the canal causing them to send confused signals. The idea of the exercises is to let these particles fall by gravity, to places in the canal where they will not cause a problem. Sometimes the particles can stick to the sides of the tube, so they help these to loosen by using some skull vibration.

[newshound]

I have that too. But on one occasion, I sat in the waiting room with a book for an hour and a half and took readings every 20 minutes or so. These pretty much converged on the values I get from an Amazon ABPM when not doing much.

[charles]

I'm of an age where I got a nice letter from one of the GPs iin our group practice telling me she was "my" GP. Nobody has ever offered me an MOT - I even have to look on-line to get a flu jab.

[Brian Reay]

Hope you get it fixed. It seems surprisingly common, I seem to have heard of a lot of people suffering from it.

As for the BP, you may find it is linked - I can imagine vertigo is just the kind of thing to cause all kinds of issues.

[Dave W]

I can confirm that. I was discovered to have high blood pressure while in hospital for something else. I always wonder if a given cuff will give accurate results for both fat and skinny arms. Lidl had a recent offer of a wrist-cuff meter for only ?10 which I bought, but I found that the readings varied erratically from one to the next. When plotted on a graph my average systolic is 140 which is "good" (compared with the doctors' arm-cuff readings of over 180) but the peaks and troughs were about plus and minus 40 on that, so I gave up using it.

When I was in hospital having arm-cuff readings every 6 hours, they also varied wildly from sample to sample.

[Brian Reay]

There are some known causes they check for- renal stenosis and the artery in your neck. If they check clear, it is usually put down to 'essential hypertension' - not quite one of those things but some people are prone to it.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I bought a Boots upper arm type. very consistent and agreed well with doctor's

[alan_m]

Around a month or two ago I was listening to a radio 4 article on blood pressure drugs where it was suggested that the drugs perhaps should be taken just before going to bed. This was to minimise the risk of a stroke while asleep. A stroke at any other time was more likely to be noticed by the victim or those around him during the day.

See also Nocturnal Hypertension

[Robert]

best practice before treating "high blood pressure" is to have a 24hour BP monitoring test done. My BP is always much higher at the surgery than at home and more interestingly the 24 hour monitoring initially showed the same BP as at home and then even lower BP for the rest of the 24hours. Just taking my BP seems to have and adverse effect.

I suspect that white coat syndrome is not uncommon.

Whatever the accuracy of monitors used at home, their main use is to show changes over time so absolute accuracy is not important.

[Dave W]

I too am on Amlodipine and Ramipril. I was expecting the cough for the latter, but no, it only affects 10% of patients according to the leaflet.

Nobody knows why the elderly get high blood pressure, which makes me dubious about taking pills to reduce it. Both these medications relax the blood vessels so that the heart doesn't have to pump so hard and is under less strain.

It sounds plausible but I can't find any evidential studies to prove it. I could argue that if the blood vessels are expanded, their walls would be thinner and weaker, and might burst at a lower pressure. So although my blood pressure is lower, my chances of having a stroke are the same!

When I was searching for academic papers, I came across an outfit called Cochran. Their mission is to create an index of independent global medical evidence on all sorts of topics. One is the question of whether giving medication for mild hypertension to the elderly increases their chances of survival. They could find nothing much, so I gave up looking also.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Yes they do. The blood vessels get plated with plaque. And narrow.

[alan_m]

Yes, it's the trend that's important and/or the difference when feeling well and not well.

[Bob Eager]

I was told to take most of mine (I take three) at night, especially the doxazosin. It's better to be lying down if you get a sudden drop in BP.

[Dave W]

The cardiology specialist agreed with me.

[Tjoepstil]

The cardiology specialist told me. >

[GB]

What are you wearing? :)