Help with blood pressure monitor!

Jay-Jay_4

As your wife had BP problems last time, the doctor will monitor her better this time. If she monitors herself at home and her blood pressure goes up, what will you do?

Minerva69

Only just spotted this thread, wish I'd seen it sooner. I had high BP when I was pregnant and it was monitored carefully by my midwife, and I was sent to hospital to have it monitored in the antenatal clinic there.

My BP is always high when I have it measured by a health professional, I have been told I have "white coat hypertension", as it is lower when I check it at home with my own monitor.

The type of monitor they use affects the reading too, if you are a larger person (like me) you need to have it checked on a monitor with a larger cuff size, as a small cuff would give a higher reading.

I have done a lot of research about high BP on the internet and talking to my GP. I was almost put on medication for high BP but when I bought a proper BP monitor (not a cheap one) and took my own readings at home, my GP accepted them as accurate and did not prescribe medication for me.

I have an Omron M7 monitor, which fits people with regular & larger arm sizes. It is advised not to get a wrist monitor as they are not accurate enough. My GP said that Omron monitors are the most accurate and are often used by GPs themselves.

There is more information on blood pressure at the Blood Pressure Association's website: http://www.bpassoc.org.uk/index.htm They have a list of approved BP monitors that are the most accurate.

Medisave http://www.medisave.co.uk/blood-pressure-monitors-c-50.html is also a good place to buy them from, I got mine from there.

king_3

Thank you! Hope you do feel better. My wife BP became normal after birth of the baby last time.

Take care.

barjam_2

i dont trust the digital bp monitors i feel they give a false reading at my gp's surgery they have quite a few dr's there but the one i see regular wont use the digital one she doesn't trust them neither

davilown

Lara wrote:

I would still recommend your wife has her BP checked via nurse at surgery though because if you mis-read it you could worry unneccesary which wouldn't be very good for her or the baby. Just a thought.

Got to agree with lara - electric BP machines are notorious for give inaccurate results specifically higher than they actually are. always well worth having it down the old fashion way by somebody with experiance on a regular basis as well.

:beer: monster

Katykat

Davilone & Barjam. You are right to be mistrust digital monitors. I'm a Practice Nurse and we all have these machines, but I dont use it for anyone with a problem BP. They are OK if you are just checking routinely, but for my hypertensive patients, I always use an old fashioned analogue sphyg. I regularly get patients sent to me by the hospital who have failed their pre operative assesment, had their operations postponed becuase BP was high. The hospitals use digtals. When I check the BP, it's very often normal. OK, "white coat hypertension" does exist, but it is rare. I would never advise a pregnant lady to monitor her own BP. The midwife is the expert, she can detect much more than just a reading on a scale. We can actually hear abnormalities, so forget buying a monitor, they are not reliable.

Minerva69

Hi Katykat, I accept what you are saying but I would trust my own GP when she said that my Omron monitor is accurate.

I was monitored using an "old fashioned" analogue sphyg throughout my pregnancy. I was often told that my BP was high, but they used the wrong cuff size. One midwife told me that my readings had been wrong because of that, as I needed a larger cuff. She changed the cuff to a larger one, and my readings were normal when she used it. However, nearly every doctor and nurse I have ever been to in my life has always used a "standard" cuff.

I was nearly put on blood pressure medication by one doctor because of these inaccurate readings with an old-fashioned sphyg. He only took one reading with it. My own GP said I could have passed out and ended up in hospital if I'd taken the medication, because my blood pressure was not actually high and I didn't need it.

I agree that the BP monitors they sell in Argos and suchlike places are cheap and not accurate, but I can't see the problem with a proper clinically validated model like the one I am using. My GP and my own practice nurse are happy for me to use it, so I will continue to do so. I even print out my readings and my GP keeps them in my notes at the surgery!

Debras_Angel

I'm with katykat on this as I have one of the monitors used at the doctors surgery and when my husband went last month for a standard BP check (new patient) he explained that it's always spot on standard, however when the nurse tested him with the monitor it was sky high. She went and got the old type from the docs and the reading was the standard normal one that he gets.

I am on medication for BP and use the same type monitor at home so I reckon I will get mine done next time with the old monitor.

Again this nurse did say that they can be temperamental.

So I'm beginning to wonder now if I do have a problem!!

Debs

Katykat

Hi Minerva & Debras Angel. In fact it is possible to get an inacurate reading even with an analogue sphyg, & yes this is usually because the cuff is the wrong size. That is why we have standard & obese cuffs, which most over the counter digitals dont have. The point I was trying to make is that digtals give a basic read out of a blood pressure and pulse. They dont tell you if the pulse is stong, weak, irregular. You cant hear if the pulse vibrates or sounds abnormal. I had a poor guy in only this week who was told by his sister that his BP was high ( with a digital) and he spent a really stressful night until he came to see me the next day, I tested it with an obese cuff, and hey presto, it was OK. This BP machine had been passed round all the family, all of them different sizes and he was just one who ended up worrying. Its just not worth it.