Pharmacy Blood Pressure Monitors

[dirtdog]

Was waiting for a prescription so decided to use Shoppers in store blood pressure monitor. First number was 140 over 100 which is pretty high so waited 5 minutes and did it again this time it was 160 over 105! Wife got excited so made me go to our clinic to have it checked there. Never had high blood pressure issues.
Clinic used a sophisticated machine that took 5 measurements automatically and averaged them. BP came out at 128 over 76 average. No problem.

Clinician recommended not to use pharmacy BP monitors. If I wanted to take BPs outside the clinic to buy one that I can use at home.

Message here - be wary of getting false readings from pharmacy BP monitors. I suppose this could have just as easily read erroneously low as opposed to high - and that could have serious consequences.

[lecale]

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[blueeyetea]

I have one at home, and instructions says to sit down and relax for 5 minutes before taking your blood pressure. But, like Lecale says, I get different readings within minutes of each other. I have the machine with the floppy cuff, so getting the right tightness that it doesn't skew the results isn't easy. I was thinking of getting the hard plastic cuff to alleviate that problem.

[lecale]

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[WalbertHouse]

It may cause you walk too long before using that monitor. Or it need to be calibrated or fixed.

[greeny]

I had the same issue with my mom. I had her use their monitor and the reading was way off.

[Lily369]

My grandma has similar experience. The first time she use blood pressure monitor , the number was 180 over 110. We're surprised at this number. Secondly, the number was 180 over 100. My father took her to hospital immediately. After checking , doctor said the number was 130 over 90. Oh, my god.