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One thing I've found in taking thousands of manual BP measurements on patients is that the tightening BP cuff can agitate the patient, and result in a higher systolic pressure reading. This seems to be more common in muscular athletes, but I've found it in many types of patients. For this reason, I typically take my time and get approximate diastolic and systolic estimates as I pump up the cuff, and then get the more accurate pressure readings on the way down.
It seems like most home BP monitors take the pressures on the way down only (during slow cuff deflation) -- they first pump up the cuff until there are no Korotkoff sounds plus another 20mmHg or so, which can be pretty agitating to some patients. With about 10% of my patients, I hear the systolic sounds starting to diminish as I get close to the systolic pressure, and then if I take too long turning around and starting to deflate the cuff, I can hear the sounds building up again because the cuff is getting uncomfortable for the patient.
A couple years ago at my dentist's office when they were doing their once-yearly check of my BP, they used a monitor that appeared to take the pressures on the way up during slow inflation. As soon as the monitor was happy with the diminishing sounds just at the systolic pressure, it deflated. It was a much more comfortable experience compared to the monitors that just blast their way up to 140+ mmHg before starting to listen (and then blasting even higher when they detect the agitated patient's sounds still).
I've been trying to find such a monitor for a friend of mine who has experienced this effect of getting agitated by the cuff over-inflation (with the resulting raised systolic readings by their monitor). But in my Google searching, I haven't been able to figure out the right feature name or search terms to use to find this class of home BP monitors. Does anybody know what this feature is called? And if you know of home BP monitor models that have this feature, I'd appreciate a link or two.
Thanks!
It seems like most home BP monitors take the pressures on the way down only (during slow cuff deflation) -- they first pump up the cuff until there are no Korotkoff sounds plus another 20mmHg or so, which can be pretty agitating to some patients. With about 10% of my patients, I hear the systolic sounds starting to diminish as I get close to the systolic pressure, and then if I take too long turning around and starting to deflate the cuff, I can hear the sounds building up again because the cuff is getting uncomfortable for the patient.
A couple years ago at my dentist's office when they were doing their once-yearly check of my BP, they used a monitor that appeared to take the pressures on the way up during slow inflation. As soon as the monitor was happy with the diminishing sounds just at the systolic pressure, it deflated. It was a much more comfortable experience compared to the monitors that just blast their way up to 140+ mmHg before starting to listen (and then blasting even higher when they detect the agitated patient's sounds still).
I've been trying to find such a monitor for a friend of mine who has experienced this effect of getting agitated by the cuff over-inflation (with the resulting raised systolic readings by their monitor). But in my Google searching, I haven't been able to figure out the right feature name or search terms to use to find this class of home BP monitors. Does anybody know what this feature is called? And if you know of home BP monitor models that have this feature, I'd appreciate a link or two.
Thanks!
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