Spec me a blood pressure monitor

Nick1881 · 28 Mar 2007 at 13:48

My mum and dad have asked me to find them a blood pressure monitor, my sister has high blood pressure (shes only 27) and now my mum wants to monitor all our blood pressures.

Anyone know anything about them? whats a good one? or do good ones cost thousands?

A quick google search and I found ones from £9.99 to about 80, but I dont know what im looking at, any help would be great.

Thanks

Nick

Kol · 28 Mar 2007 at 13:52

In case you struggle finding them under BP monitor, try looking for them as sphygmomanometers.

Cheers.

http://www.medical-equipment.uk.com/pages/aneroid_sphygmomamometer_page2.htm

as phykell said below though, boots do a range. My old man got a digital one quite cheap from there. Not sure on it's accuracy, but it's ample.

phykell · 28 Mar 2007 at 13:52

Boots do a good range. Choose a large branch and ask for advice from an assistant on which model to go for.

SunaseIPs · 28 Mar 2007 at 13:53

Mikol said:
In case you struggle finding them under BP monitor, try looking for them as sphygmomamometers.

Cheers.

http://www.medical-equipment.uk.com/pages/aneroid_sphygmomamometer_page2.htm

You mean sphygmomanometers

Kol · 28 Mar 2007 at 13:54

SunaseIPs said:
You mean sphygmomanometers

Indeed, forgive my spelling mistake.. I'm rushing, I'm supposed to be working and revising, procrastination at its best

SunaseIPs · 28 Mar 2007 at 14:05

Mikol said:
Indeed, forgive my spelling mistake.. I'm rushing, I'm supposed to be working and revising, procrastination at its best

Its only because google told me off and said "No you mean this".

Energize · 28 Mar 2007 at 14:08

My dads got a digital one that wraps around the arm and inflates itself, no need to waste your energy doing it manually.

Kol · 28 Mar 2007 at 14:10

SunaseIPs said:
Its only because google told me off and said "No you mean this".

Stupid google didn't spot it for me when putting in sphygmomamometer... piece of crap! Made me look like a fool

colinuk · 28 Mar 2007 at 14:14

Be warned though... I know this sounds daft but the size of the sleeve does matter.

If its too small for your arm, you will get a INCORRECT reading from the machine.

If in doubt, GET TO THE DOCS and let the nurse do it.

It happened to me, got a reading of somethign like 125/190..... i should be dead. went to the nurse at the local gp, told her what happened,she laughed, told me about sleeve sizes, tested me with the right one, got a reading of 90/127, tad high but not too bad.

<ColiN>

Rotty · 28 Mar 2007 at 14:36

Omron are the best of the home monitors, many doctors use them

Fourstar · 28 Mar 2007 at 14:40

Have a look on the British Hypertension Society site to make sure the model you pick has been validated to the appropriate standards.
http://www.bhsoc.org/blood_pressure_list.stm

When I thought I might have hypertension I bought an A&D UA-767 (currently £42.31) from PMS Instruments.

I find the sleeve type that go on the upper arm are easier to use that the wrist based ones.

Turns out my blood pressure was fine and I'm just a white coat hypertensive

kinetic747 · 28 Mar 2007 at 15:03

Rotty said:
Omron are the best of the home monitors, many doctors use them

Indeed they are, I was recently given one by my doc to take home after sufferering from high blood pressure after my recent redundancy. All's well now though so when I took the monitor back he told me to get one of these. Absolute bargain. :cool:

Meridian · 28 Mar 2007 at 18:00

Rotty said:
Omron are the best of the home monitors, many doctors use them

Agreed - the local blood bank used them as well.

M