Blood pressure monitor problems

[Dodie66]

I’ve been trying to take my blood pressure to monitor it before an appointment this week. The blood pressure monitor is tightening so much it’s painful. It tightens then stops, tightens more, stops and then tightens more again and feels so painful and feels like the blood supply in my arm is restricted I can’t bear it and have to stop it. As it’s so painful the reading is then high and I don’t knowif the reading is correct. Is this how,it should be or do you think there is a problem with the monitor.? My hood,pressure is always high at the surgery hence having to do it at home. Thanks

it sounds like your BP may be genuinely high, especially if it matches what's happening when it's monitored in clinic. The machine is probably behaving normally - it does (transiently) cut off the blood supply to the arm - that's exactly what it's supposed to do to work out what the systolic (top number) BP is. It will normally inflate to a 'best guess' number for an adult and then slowly deflate, but if your systolic BP is higher than that initial best guess then it inflates a bit more and reassesses and if necessary a bit more until it gets high enough to know what your BP is. Only thing worth double checking is that the cuff on your machine is the right size for your arm (eg. people with obesity need a larger cuff otherwise the machine is more likely to over-read). If you can do serial measurements without turning the machine off, the machine may remember where the top number was so the second or third reading may feel a little bit quicker and smoother.

Assuming you are in the UK you will find that your BP is probably higher at the moment because of the heat.

That said when my BP monitor does the re-inflating thing it usually results in a higher reading which has always proved accurate when checked at the GP.

do you have the right sized cuff for your arm size? This can also have an impact.

Thanks everyone. I’ll check the cuff size. I have an appointment next week so can ask them to check it too

The type/brand of monitor and cuff seems to make a difference too. I had a Boots one, from about 15 years ago, with a cuff that you wrap around and then it clearly fills with air (you can see it) and it used to get really quite tight. I was getting some inconsistent readings, too, but never knew if it was the machine or me.

Then I bought a new one, by Omron, and it comes with a sort of pre-shaped cuff that goes around your arm but is stiffer and partly formed into a curve already, and you kind of pull it open to put on your arm and then velcro it closed. Then when you inflate it, it doesn't fill up with air as much - it doesn't balloon out in the same way, but more inflates on the inside and not as much. It doesn't seem to hurt as much when it does it. The readings have still been quite mixed but I'm assuming more accurate, even though it doesn't feel like it's inflating anywhere near as high. It also gives you an indication of irregular beats sometimes, though that can also be quite oversensitive I think and it's just when you move or whatever, so that feature might be more anxiety-producing than helpful for some people.

Try taking it on your lower arm, I had to do this when my cuff was too small while I waited for a new cuff to arrive.