Blood Pressure Machine – Cuff Size, Placement Important
The home blood pressure machine, blood pressure monitor, is a fantastic health aid device for monitoring the effectiveness of your anti-hypertensive medications if you are under medical treatment. Or perhaps, your doctor wants you to monitor your BPs at home to see how they are running there. It is not at all unusual for some people to demonstrated elevated blood pressure at the doctor’s office- aka ‘white coat syndrome.”
If you wish to examine your blood pressure reading in the comfort of your home then you will require a blood pressure machine. Wide selections of blood pressure machines are available for home purchase. For this reason, it is important to ensure that you choose the most suitable blood pressure machine. In order to do this, you will need to equip yourself with the knowledge required to make an informed purchase.
A convenient type of blood pressure machine to use at home are those that are fully automatic. Automatic or electronic blood pressure machines are advantageous in comparison to manual machines as they are relatively inexpensive yet provide results that are accurate enough for clinical use. These do not require the separate purchase of a stethoscope.
When choosing a blood pressure machine for a home health aid use, it is recommended that you choose a machine which has been clinically validated for precision of measurement. This means that the blood pressure machine has successfully passed a series of tests to ensure that you can have confidence in the results that it provides. A measure of a good blood pressure machine is one that comes with a guarantee from the manufacturer.
Blood pressure machines that measure blood pressure at the upper arm at the level of your heart typically give results of greater accuracy and consistency than those which measure blood pressure at the wrist or fingertip.
Blood pressure machines which measure blood pressure at the upper arm use a cuff that is wrapped around the arm. The blood pressure cuff must be the correct size for your arm otherwise your blood pressure measurement will not be accurate. If you have larger arms, the cuff size may be too small and require the purchase of a larger cuff as deemed necessary by your doctor. The majority of blood pressure machines come with a blood pressure cuff which is deemed medium in size. If you require a blood pressure cuff that is larger or smaller in size, you may have to order one separately from the manufacturer.
Placement of the cuff on your arm is important to an accurate reading. As you look at the manufacturer’s illustration, it will likely show the cuff at the lower part of your uppr arm, above the elbow.
The cuff when placed should neither too loose nor too tight before it is inflated.
The price of blood pressure machines varies. The price of a machine is usually dependent upon the features it offers. Extra features, such as an in-built memory, are not a necessity. Although the more expensive blood pressure machines are often able to print out your results, recording your readings using a pen and paper will prove just as adequate.
The majority of automatic home blood pressure machines require re-calibration every two years at the least. This will ensure that the machine is providing you with accurate results. To re-calibrate your home blood pressure machine, your machine may have to be returned to its manufacturer. The manufacturer may charge a fee for re-calibration.
As mentioned earlier, it is often the case that readings of blood pressure are found to be raised when they are measured in a clinical setting. This phenomenon is termed white coat hypertension and it often results from anxiousness and the stress of being within a clinical environment. As a result of this, home health monitoring blood pressure readings taken outside of the doctor’s surgery are now considered to provide a more precise picture of normal blood pressure and being in possession of a home blood pressure machine is seen as more valuable than it has ever been before.
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