Blood Pressure Monitors

Do I need my own blood pressure monitor?

High blood pressure (BP), or hypertension, is one of the major risk factors for atherosclerosis and can independently lead to stroke. High blood pressure is especially dangerous because it may not cause any symptoms, and the only way to know that you have hypertension is to check your blood pressure.

Optimal control means having a blood pressure that is within the normal range most of the time, without having many abnormally high or low values. Rather than simply taking one BP reading in the clinic, and using this as the basis for treatment decisions, it is better to obtain numerous readings from a persons normal environment.

Therefore a home blood pressure machine (along with a notebook to record the results) is a valuable tool in managing cardiovascular risk. Many machines are available over the internet or from local chemists. It can be difficult to know which one to choose.

The British and Irish Hypertension Society publish a list of validated BP monitors. This means BP machines that have been assessed independently and proved to give accurate readings. While some of these brands are not available in the Australian market, there is considerable overlap. However the model names vary between markets. The list can be found here.

To simply the process we often recommend the Omron brand. Omron are a reputable manufacturer that sell machines in both the UK and Australia and all their machines are clinically validated. Their Australian model range and a comparison tool can be found here. It is important to choose an arm cuff, rather than a wrist cuff. The arm cuff should be an appropriate size, as being too large or too small will distort the assessment.

Wrist BP Monitoring Devices

Wrist devices are not accurate enough in routine home use. They are more likely to have errors in BP assessment than the standard upper arm BP monitors. Although some wrist devices might meet accuracy criteria if strict attention is paid to having the wrist perfectly at heart level, this can be difficult to achieve reproducibly in normal home use. Standard, validated upper arm BP monitors are recommended in preference to wrist devices.