Home blood pressure monitor way off?

[buddscreekman]

Wife has been bugging me to check my bp I do see a dr. regularly and my pressure has been under control for about 10 years now,often even below 120/80. She brought me home a monitor from walmart that says it fits up to a 15 3/4 inch arm,well,mine is 15. Should work,right- But with a few rare exceptions every time I check it,I am running way high - 150-160 systolic over about 80 - 85. Bottom number is no biggie,but that top one is a surprise. I swung by the dr. office the other day and told them I just wanted to compare my machine with thiers. They got 138/77 and mine chose that time to give a pretty normal reading,of course. But the girl told me as soon as she saw the cuff it was too small no matter what the box says and it was giving me false high readings and to ignore it. I've lost some people in the family over issues with their heart,and don't want to chance it but also don't want to be biatching about something that isn't there. What throws me is why only the top number?
Anyone had this same issue?

 

[Toxick]

What throws me is why only the top number?
Anyone had this same issue?

I haven't had this issue, but I can see what the problem may be.

The top number (systolic) is the millibar measurement captured when your pulse is in Pump mode.... when the pulsation of your vascular system is at its largest.

The bottom number (diastolic) is the millibar measurement captured when your pulse is in relax-mode... when your pulsating body is at it's smallest.


If the size of your arm is right at the threshhold of the cuff size, your systolic could be wildly unpredictable, while the diastolic could be dead on accurate.




You also need to make sure your brachial artery lines up to the right spot on the cuff, or else you'll get weird readings.

 

[libertytyranny]

The best thing to do is a geta manual cuff and learn how to use it. Then a cuff should fit snugly but comfortably and generally that means a few inches of velcro left over. I don't trust the automatic one, especially wrist monitors. A too small cuff will give you a high reading, a too large cuff will give you a low..but there. Is quite a bit of wiggle room with a manual cuff. automatic cuffs can be very finicky and give strange readings.

 

[GWguy]

My home automatic cuff came with instructions that said if your arm was beyond a certain size, the reading would not be accurate. However, you could purchase a cuff extender to increase the cuff size and it would be reliable.

 

[ginwoman]

I like my Omron Automatic BP monitor for the arm.