Just a reminder,
In my last annual checkup I was diagnosed developing a nice metabolic syndrome and in particular suffering from hypertension. I wrote about it here.
I needed a good blood pressure monitor. The one I already have was giving me all sorts of readings - I had to have a good quality blood pressure monitor. I couldn't rely on what Macabi (my health insurance company) are including in their basket.
I used this paper in order to find the best blood pressure monitor - the Omron HEM 705CP. In the paper they compared several brands and this one was 'recommended' while so many other devices got 'not recommended'. They also said that it passed the strict tests by the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) and of the British Hypertension Society (BHS) while other devices did not.
Here's table 4 from this paper:
I bought it in Amazon for 85$ + shipping - 536 IS in total...
It's a very simple monitor - even your grand mother can measure her blood pressure if she has any.
I measured here 123/55, 59 heart beat per second and it was 7:02 p.m.
It remembers the last 28 measurements - but it's also a problem because in a household where several people are suffering from hypertension and are also shouting on each other because of the stress... - you cannot say who measured what - you just see a bunch of 128 measures and you have to guess whose blood pressure was it.
The cuff that you are supposed to wrap around your hand it too small - it's for women, for old people but not for a REAL man like myself, so as long as I am not pumping my muscles I can still use it - but I mean - this is such a basic thing - to provide a wide enough cuff! duh !!
So as you can see this issue is one more issue that only adds to my hypertension...
And then there's this printer gadget that you get together with the monitor. At first I thought - wow it's gonna record my heart beats - and there's gonna be a bunch of niddles writing down every pulse. Nada. All it does is print the history of 28 last measurements on a small stupid paper, a dedicated printer. Of course I would have preferred that the monitor shall connect through a usb to some software that runs on my computer and adds to my spreadsheet, but whoever are designing this thing thought it would be cool to have this printer. I think it's stupid.
And don't forget 4 AA batteries for the monitor and additional 4 AA batteries for the freaking printer which of course are not provided.
Regarding the accuracy of the measurements... - well I was under the impression that such a qualified device that passed the strict tests of AAMI & BHS would provide measurements with lower standard deviation - but what can I say? I get different readings, or let's put it this way - shockingly different readings even if I rest for only 2 minutes between two consecutive measurements... - oh well.
I read somewhere that it's important to measure where you arm is at the same height of your heart. I tried that - it didn't help.
Aviel.
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