I have maintenance medication for high blood pressure so I am prescribed to have a reading of my blood pressure once in a while. A trip to the clinic requires effort and the nurse or the physician is not free of charge so we decided to buy a digital monitor which is an equivalent of the spygmomanometer. Cheap at $40, we didn't hesitate with the purchase. However, when we tested it at home, I was disappointed because the reading I got was 190/110. That blood pressure would have killed me on the spot. My husband tried it and he got 160/90 which is impossible because he is always normal with his blood pressure reading of 120/80. That digital monitor just confused us and we are thinking of how to make good use of it.
To be fair - although home blood pressure monitoring is extremely common these days and digital - upper arm cuff style - monitors are the most widely accepted and generally the most recommend devices for home BP monitoring - as when used correctly - they give the most accurate readings. Bearing in mind that - because the most common reasons for inaccurate or false readings from patient BP monitoring have been found to be - not the device - but improper technique or even an ill fitting, wrong sized or poorly placed cuff and therefore patients are now usually advised - prior to doing their own home BP monitoring - to take their device as well as themselves to a health care provider - so that - not only can the accuracy of the device be checked - but more importantly - to ensure that they are using it correctly. My thoughts are - before giving up on the one you have bought - would be to do just that - particularly as - apart from being extremely easy to get a false or inaccurate reading - if you haven't been shown the proper technique of how and when to get an accurate BP reading - it would at least - avoid the possibility of having to discard the device unnecessarily.
