BP Monitors

[Lochinvar]

I'm new to this site. I'm mid 70's and I've had AF for 20+ years and live with it - reluctantly! with assistance of: Digoxin, Apixaban and a statin for good measure.

My BP is 'marginal' (140ish/70ish with a cautious low dose 4mg of Candestartan). I want to start monitoring my BP on a daily basis. Any advice and/or recommendations for a BP Monitor which can cope with/take account of my AF? Thanks

[stopper]

I use a Boots MC 101 blood pressure monitor which is quite accurate.

Also there is a free program for recording blood pressure which can be printed off to take to your doctor at each visit.

lifestyletoolbox.com

[Hidden]

Hi Lochinvar, finding home BP monitors has always been a problem because the general view is they don’t work effectively if you have persistent AF. My cardiologist always used the old fashioned glass tube and mercury one (can never remember the name) but I understand they are now hard to come by because of the mercury content. I heard it said that if you have a decent Omron monitor and always take the average of three attempts that that is about as close as you are going to get. That said, new stuff is always being developed and others may know of alternatives. Obviously it’s up to you, but there is a school of thought that says daily monitoring can be counterproductive because it heightens awareness and very often raises blood pressure way beyond it’s normal levels. I have only ever been asked to keep a record of weekly readings and that was for a relatively short period.......

[Buffafly]

I have an Omron 3 (probably a better version available now) which is fairly accurate and shows AF as a little shaky heart 💓

[Bshersey]

I have a cheap one from CVS. It does the job except when I am in active afib. Then it gets really confused.

[Hidden]

I have a Microlife "WatchBP home" BP monitor which also has the capability to detect AF - and does, I can assure you. It will take up to 250 readings and the results can be stored and then downloaded to your PC (it comes with its own program) and then to hardcopy. This has been reviewed by NICE and is approved by NICE to detect AF.

John

[KMRobbo]

I have an omron m6 intellisense with bi link software which allows upload to the omron website. It stores 90 readings in the BP monitor before it starts to overwrite them so the upload only needs to be done periodically. You can download.CSV files to your pc from the uploaded data for a local permanent record. However I think the BP readings are affected when you are in afib or flutter. Certainly the recorded pulse rate can be as low as 50% of the actual rate.