BP monitor - how to check calibration?

[GB]

Plus people get less exercise when they get older. And they tend to put on weight.

[Capitol]

The readings you get from hospital BP macinees vary wildly.

[Dave W]

Are you trying to correct me, or are you talking about your own cardiology specialist? In my case he didn't tell me, he agreed with me when I said nobody seems to know why the elderly get high blood pressure.

Also in answer to TNP, nobody knows why "The blood vessels get plated with plaque. And narrow."?

[alan_m]

My diagnosis was more by luck. My place of work had a medical department with one nurse and she put up posters offering a check for Diabetes, BP, lung capacity and a few other common tests. This wasn't compulsory but the appointments were in works time. My BP was sky high. I was told to lie down for 10 minutes and the BP taken again - no difference. I was given a letter for my GP. At this time I purchased my own BP monitor and confirmed the readings taken at the medical check. I had no outward symptoms of high BP.

[Cursitor Doom]

The cuff ones are next to useless. False economy to buy one, mate.

[Cursitor Doom]

Ditto with the Lloyds Pharmacy I got a while back. It also agrees with the Omron one I bought more recently. Both disagree violently with the Bosch-AEG wrist type one I've since binned.

[Cursitor Doom]

The correct term is "essential hypertension" - high blood pressure they can't find a causal factor for.

[Andrew Gabriel]

I was in a trial for a new type developed by UCL. You wear it like a large watch and it senses at your wrist, but it measures the blood pressure at your aorta somehow, not at the sense site. The challenge with measuring blood pressure is always to get it as near to the heart as possible - the further away, the less accurate (which is why wrist measurements are nowhere near as good as upper arm measurements).

The prototype didn't work on me - you needed more fat in your wrists. That was nevertheless useful feedback for the trial program.

Yes, they tried reading my blood pressure just before shoving a camera up where the sun don't shine. Strangley, it was alarmingly high. Measuring again afterwards found it was normal. They found this surprising for some reason - I didn't.

[harry]

Try it out on a few other people. Young and old.

[Harry Bloomfield]

I now have three BP monitors and my own measured pressure varies quite wildly. It seems I can cause the 'white coat syndrome' just taking the measurements myself. I can take the first measurement, then a second check within seconds of the first, will find the sys has increased by

20 to 30mmHg.

A big surprise for me, was how my pressure can fall from its usual values, if I check it directly after even a slight amount of exercise, such as doing some vacuuming the house, or after having walked 100 yards home from the bus. Measuring it right after a soak in a bath, produces the lowest readings. I rather expected the opposite effect, a large increase in pressures measured.

[alan_m]

If you are going to take two readings within seconds do one on your right arm and the second on your left arm. I haven't got the instructions in front of me but I seem to remember reading that when repeating tests on the same arm you are meant to leave it for a few minutes with the cuff removed before the repeat measurement.

A quick google confirms that BP tends to fall after some exercise.

What is more telling with exercise is the heart rate and how long it takes to come back to a low (at rest) reading after exercise.

[alan_m]

From the Omron manual on their web site

To take a measurement, you need to be relaxed and comfortably seated, under comfortable room temperature. Avoid bathing, drinking alcohol or caffeine, smoking, exercising or eating 30 minutes before taking a measurement.

Wait 2-3 minutes before taking another measurement. Waiting between measurements allows the arteries to return to the condition prior to taking a measurement.

The arm cuff should be placed on your arm at the same level as your heart

[Harry Bloomfield]

alan_m explained on 23/09/2017 :

I understood what I read, to suggest that BP would be helped to fall by a long term exercise regime, rather than immediately after a quick bit of exercise. I thought exercise, more blood flowing = higher pressure, but maybe I misunderstood.

My heart rate doesn't seem to vary much always between 80 and 100 no matter what I am doing.

[alan_m]

My resting pulse rate is around 60 to 70, mild exercise gets me to 100.