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BLOOD PRESSURE MONITORING

If you suffer from a Chronic Illness such as Heart Disease/Hypertension, you may be asked to monitor your blood pressure levels at home.

If this is the case, this page will provide you with detailed information about where, how and why blood pressure monitoring is done. It will give you details of retailers who sell recommended Blood Pressure Monitors and provide you with a downloadable Blood Pressure Monitoring Sheet, to note down your readings.

Why Should I Measure My Blood Pressure at Home?

Blood Pressure Monitoring in a Doctor's Surgery setting, may cause apprehension and produce elevated readings
(See article below on ‘White Coat Hypertension).

Measuring your blood pressure at home reduces the effects of outside influences on readings, this supplements the Doctor/Nurse's readings and provides a more accurate and complete blood pressure history.

What do I Need to Measure My Blood Pressure

• Rest for 3-5 minutes before measuring your blood pressure. Do not talk.
• Sit in a comfortable position, with your legs and ankles uncrossed and your back supported.
• Place your arm, raised to the level of your heart, on a table or desk and sit still.
• Wrap the correctly sized cuff snugly around the upper part of your bare arm (one inch above the crease of your elbow). The cuff should fit snugly but still allow one fingertip under the cuff.
• Be certain that the bottom of the cuff is one inch above the crease of your elbow.

How Do I Use a Digital Monitor

• Put the cuff around the arm. Turn the power on and start the machine.
• The cuff will inflate by itself with a push of the start button. After the cuff has inflated, the automatic mechanism will slowly reduce the cuff pressure.
• Look at the display window to see your blood pressure reading. The machine will show your systolic and diastolic blood pressures on the screen. Write these down on the form provided.
• If you want to repeat the measurement, wait 2 to 3 minutes before reinflating the cuff.

Should I Buy My Own Blood Pressure Monitor?

For some patients monitoring their own blood pressure at home is very useful. Doctors encourage this as a more accurate method of establishing the need for medication and change.

Taking and monitoring your own blood pressure can make you feel more confident and also help you to understand more about blood pressure what effects it and how it changes. However you need to think carefully before buying a monitor.

What Type of Monitor is Best?

There are many different blood pressure monitors available, which can be bought directly from the manufacturers, or from larger Chemists. Most measure pressure from the upper part of your arm the same way that your Doctor or Nurse measures it.

Some machines measure blood pressure from the wrist or finger, these are not recommended as they do not measure pressure very accurately. They are extremely sensitive to body temperature and they are usually more expensive.

Cost may be an important factor. Since home blood pressure units vary in price, you may have to shop around. The most expensive units may not be the best or the most accurate.

The following automatic blood pressure monitors are all upper arm and have been validated by the British Hypertension Society (BHS).

· Ø Omron HEM 705-CP

· Ø Omron M5-1

.
	Ø Omron M4
	Ø Omron 713C
	Ø Omron 735C
	Ø A&D Instruments UA-767

Blood Pressure Reading In Relation To Risk Of Strokes

 Blood pressure is the single most important modifiable factor in the prevention of strokes.

Risk of stroke increases directly in line with increasing blood pressure, especially if a
person's   blood pressure systolic (top) reading is greater than 160mmhg and/or the
diastolic (bottom) reading is greater than 90mmhg. Fortunately there is an abundance
of medication available aimed at successfully reducing blood pressure to a more satisfactory
level of 140/80mmhg or lower.

Download Blood Pressure Monitoring Form
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WH1TE COAT
HYPERTENSION
Extract From UPDATE

Ten to twenty per cent of `hypertensive' patients have normal blood pressure when
it is measured out of a doctor's presence.

White coat hypertension is common,. The phenomenon, in which blood pressure is only raised in the presence
of a doctor, has been known about for the past decade.

What is white coat hypertension?
Patients with white coat hypertension only have high blood pressure (BP) in the consulting room.
This is different from the `alarm' or `defence' reaction, which is a normal response to blood pressure
measurement and is experienced by most people (both normotensive and hypertensive). The crucial
difference is that rises in blood pressure due to alarm or stress regress to the mean whereas White Coat
Hypertension persists.

White Coat Hypertension was first described in 1988 and was reported in the British literature in the same
year. The British Hypertension Society's 1993 Guidelines only mentioned it in the context of ambulatory
blood pressure monitoring as this was the only reliable means of diagnosing it at the time. Ambulatory
monitoring was then only available in specialist centres.

Some 10-20% of patients diagnosed as hypertensive are thought to have white coat hypertension, but
the incidence varies according to the definition of white coat hypertension, and the definition and prevalence
of hypertension in the community concerned.

How can white coat hypertension be diagnosed?

White coat hypertension can only be diagnosed by taking a series of blood
pressure measurements outside the consulting room, either by continuous ambulatory monitoring or by
home blood pressure
recording.

HOME BP MONITORING

Patients who measure their blood pressure at home usually use a digital, semi-automatic device. These
devices are simple battery-driven instruments with an electric pump and digital readout, and are universally
used in hospitals. There are a large number of models and some are much less reliable than others.' Some of
the better devices have been established to be accurate enough for use in primary care, where their most
important role is diagnosing white coat hypertension.

Patients take the unit home and are instructed to take several readings a day for up to a week.
The average systolic and diastolic blood pressure measurements are then calculated.