I have a wrist cuff device that consistently fails to produce consistent readings. I have had afib for about twenty years and have got used to it. When I tried to obtain a reading this morning, it came up with two 'EE' error messages, one reading of 225 over 125 and another of 125 over 66.
I have tried other machines without success - usually with a read out saying " you have afib, go and see your doctor". I this mentioned this to my cardiologist and he burst out laughing -"good luck with that" he said, "they are usually all over the place"
So any suggestions?
Written by
Ianc2
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
I live in Canada and I have one that works very well. It is made by a company called BIOS and picks up the afib every time. It is not a wrist cuff but a full arm cuff and I am thrilled with this machine.
It gives your bp, your hr and if you are in afib an afib sign blinks to alert you....It only cost me around $140.00 Canadian and worth every penny. It can also be run by battery or electrically and comes with a neat carrying case and has memory as well.
I have the Omron M3 which I bought from Amazon for £40. It tells you blood pressure, heart rate and if your heart is irregular, which is when you are in AF. I found my wife had a irregular heart problem with it when she had chest pains and she now has a pacemaker. I can recommend it and it has been worth every penny. My doctor said it was a good call when I presented him with all the data on my heart and it enabled the cardiologist to see that I was still having problems. I monitor myself regularly with it and always know when I am in AF. I also have a finger pulse monitor which is a Penewell and can be bought at Amazon or eBay for about £20. This will show the heartbeat going up and down, thus indicating AF. I have not regretted getting both these and can recommend you get them both too. Hope this helps you.
Just to let you know that the Omron M3 is a arm blood pressure monitor and they are used by doctors and other professionals in the NHS. I have seen them in the doctors surgery for patients use. The Omron M3 is the starting version of the AF monitors and there is no need to buy any of the more expensive Omrons. Look on line for one.
Like Flyer I have an Omron M3 which I purchased to monitor my blood pressure at the request of my GP who suspected Iit was high long before P-AF was diagnosed . My GPs surgery uses the same model as mine and they both give the same reading , I know because I took in with me to check.
It has a simple 'irregular heartbeat' symbol which has worked on many occasions when I knew my heartbeat to be irregular but at other times it gave an 'E4' error message indicating movement during measurement, this was not surprising considering during some episodes of AF I was shaking . The monitor which stores 60 readings enabled me to record the fact that 'something' was going on with my heart even though when an appointment was made for an ECG at the GPs surgery and I was allowed to borrow a holter monitor for 24 hours (a total waste of time for P-AF ) no irregularity was detected. The Omron confirmed I was not imagining things.
It can be difficult to get a monitor reading during AF and I thought the wildly fluctuating BP measurements high at first then later dropping rapidly were due to an error . But when I managed to get to the cottage hospital during an episode of AF to obtain a diagnosis the nurse recorded the same high BP reading I had recorded at home. I think for some people BP becomes very erratic during AF episodes which may account for some of the unpleasant symptoms.
Since I started taking medication for P-AF not all my episode have had severe symptoms and I have been shocked to find when taking a routine blood pressure measurement the irregular heartbeat symbol was activated and a check of my pulse confirmed I was in AF.
I don't have a smart phone so some of the devices mentioned on here which record abnormal heart activity would be of no use for me , the BP monitor is adequate for my needs at this time.
I have an omron M6 comfort IT - it stores 90 readings and allows transfer to a PC for recordings - you an look at blood pressure trends-. for the extra i paid over an M3 I thought this was worth it. - I now have a blood pressure record from August 2017, I have recently had a discussion with a hospital doctor over what is my "normal" blood pressure range for example .
it has arrhythmia recognition.
it has a special armband that supposedly eliminates errors of measurement.
It has heart rate measurment. HOWEVER, I know when in extreme arrhythmia (fast ectopics) it cannot count.
I use my garmin forerunner GPS with chest belt for accurate reading of heart rate. Th e omron can show anything from 50% to 100% rate as compared to the Garmin.
I have had the high figures shown on the garmin verified by ECG on three occasions by hospital /paramedic ECG. This was verified owing to the Garmin rate being in conflict with that show by the simple finger/wrist pulse measurement shown in the A&E. ( Somehow one sensor does not count the pulse correctly when in arrhythmoa?? The garmin chest belt has two sensors).
My wife's wrist "fit bit" cannot usually count my pulse correctly when in AFIB either!
If you are in AF at the time that you take your blood pressure, then there is probably no BP machine whatsoever that can give you an accurate BP reading, and that includes the ones used in hospitals as the machines simply cannot properly cope with the confusion of "noise" that comes with AF. Many of them will signal you are in AF but that's not the same as giving you an accurate BP measurement.
In fact automatic measurement of BP of any kind is not recommended for those of us in AF but I am sure, like me, you will have a hard time communicating that to most professionals, who blithely carry on regardless with their machines. The only accurate way of measuring BP when you are in AF is the old fashioned cuff and stethoscope with a mark one trained human ear at one end.
The problem is with the diastolic number (That's the lower number of the two) and is supposed to measure the pressure in your arteries between beats, and the machines work by "listening" to the heart beat coming back as the pressure is released, and of course if you are in AF not only could you literally be in an irregular phase as that comes back (and therefore muck up the timing) but also there is a lot of side "noise" which can mask the heartbeat and fool the machine.
Having said that, it's not a huge problem, frankly if you are 120/80 or 120/75 no-one is going to worry too much, because unless the diastolic is very low (60 or below) they are really only interested in the systolic (higher) number as an indication of any problems.
Of course that's not true if you are very young or an athlete, when the diastolic rate is more crucial.
If you need to monitor BP then I think the Omron machines are good, try and use one that measures 3 times and averages the results (M7 I think) and NICE recommend the Watch BP Home, although I think more for it's ability to detect AF than it's accuracy in BP recording.
Hi beancounter - thank you for this explanation, it’s really helpful! I’ve been confused about why my AF-identifying Omron still sometimes can’t cope with my BP when in AF.
When I could get BP readings, it’s come out scary high (eg 225/125) and only slightly lower in Hospital, but my cardiologist said not to worry. That the heart is ‘not at all happy’ during AF so BP can be very high, but it’s nothing to worry about. (I’m guessing he meant it fluctuates? As surely sustained very high isn’t good??) He said just don’t try to take my BP in AF. Would that make sense to you?
I’ve often wondered how that works if you’re in persistent AF- but your explanation about being able to get it checked manually really makes sense. Thank you! X
Once again, that opt repeated refrain we are all different, but feedback seems to say those with PAF do get higher blood pressure during epsiodes. Those of us in persistent AF like me actually don't seem to suffer too much, I used to record my BP religiously, great spreadsheets with graphs and everything, but realised eventually (after nagging from BobD and others, I was simply focussing on my AF too much, now I seldom measure and my Omron in on the shelf behind me gathering dust.
By the way if I measured now I would be around 120-125 over 75-80 so pretty normal.
Sustained high BP is not great, but common in AF and as your doc says nothing to worry about, and Yes taking your BP in AF will probably only worry you and not help, and of course not be accurate.
If you want to measure, do so when not in an episode and infrequently, monthly is more than enough just to make sure your background BP is OK. Then concentrate on your treatment plan with your professionals to get the AF under control.
For me, once I got the medical profession to confirm there was indeed something going on with my heart and received suitable medication, I no longer feel the need to have a machine to indicate I am having an episode of P-AF . The bad episodes are self evident, the not so bad ones I barely notice and both are confirmed by taking my pulse.
I just make a note of the episodes of which I am aware in the little book kindly provided for that purpose by the AFA.
My BP monitor is used to keep track of my BP to make sure the beta blockers are helping to keep it in check .
P-AF is just part of my everyday life now and not something I have to monitor closely or should worry about
I have a omron arm monitor. My blood pressure readings were all over the place so My gp asked me to get a monitor and take my be four times a day for a couple of weeks to get an average reading. This monitor shows when heartbeat is irregular so gp could also see episodes of afib. The error message only comes on if I don’t put the cuff on properly. My meds were adjusted after looking at the results over time, and now I only need to check now and again.
OMRON BP 785 works well for me. I also have an iHealth BP cuff and unit that works wirelessly with my iPhone.
Hi,
Apologies for the late post. 2 things - when diagnosed with AF it was the readings of my Omron M7 that gave me a clue that I had a heart issue, but didn't say what it was. The day leading up to my hospitalisation I received a combination of error messages and falling readings. In those days my average reading would have been 136/80 ish .......... by the time my Apollo 13 moment arrived (the bit where Tom Hanks says "Houston, we have a problem", it had progressively dropped to 76/50 ish. Hence my GP seeing me immediately and sent me straight off to hospital where AF was diagnosed.
Since then I've upgraded to the NICE recommended 'Watch BP Home' (arm cuff) monitor approved by NICE for detecting AF. It only displays an image of a wobbly heart and the hardcopy printout of up to a maximum of 250 readings will indicate which reading detects AF.
Of course none of them are any good in detecting AF unless you are 'strapped up' to one.
I use the Lloyds Pharmacy version. It seems to work OK. It is an armband velcro type sensor - like the on the doctors use, but it was relatively cheap. The issue I assume is that they get confused by the large gaps in pulse repetition which they take as succesfully having stoped the cirdulation. So they get a false reading. I suppose they all have that potential problem. It will be a question of how often the device increases/decreases the pressure and samples the result for the pulse. You may need a larger band size - They sell two sizes.
Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.
Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.
x 
Blood pressure meds & afib
.Blood pressure monitor detecting Afib
AFib and Blood Pressure
Dare I state that a homeopathic medicine stopped my AFib attacks!!!
