Blood Pressure Monitors

[BJS]

How reliable are these monitors for givin relatie true readings for BP and Pulse readings. Obviously not as accurate as a Drs surgery but do the give a pretty good indication of these readings.

[sunny-dave]

The 'upper arm' versions are pretty good - I had mine (an omron) calibrated against the one used by my GP nurse & it was within 1%.

The wrist versions are rather less accurate I believe.

[emeritus]

As long as you get an Arm Cuff model (not Wrist cuff) it will give fairly accurate readings. I took mine to the Doctors and the Pharmacy for calibrating and it was very accurate.

[kat1]

I think they are very accurate. I have a Lloyds one for my husband which i use twice a week. Always take 2 readings one after the other & go by the second reading.

[emeritus]

Just for info this is the one I purchased. WHICH gave it a Best Buy status.

http://www.amazon.co....Monitor/dp/B003U5V42U

[HowardKennitby]

I have one from Loyd's chemists. It is an arm cuff one and I seem to recall it was ±3% on pressure and pulse.

[TOWIE]

I often wonder how accurate the ones in the GP surgeries are - they are used on lots of patients. The one in our surgery looks very tatty.

[Sqad]

TOWIE......LOL...a very good point.

[ethandron]

My gp regularly tests mine against the one in the surgery. This proves one of two things...either they're both right or they're both wrong. Either way they both give the same, or very similar, readings.
To answer the original question, in my opinion home monitors are reliable and accurate.

[BJS]

The monitor I have is a Boots wrist type. The reason I posed the question is lately, I have found my pulse reading is high. I think what I am to establish is that the monitor gives a good indication, if not a exact one, that you have a high/low BP or PULSE. Thanks for all the replies.

[Zeuhl]

I was told the ones measuring BP at the wrist are inaccurate - upper arm cuff is the preferred type