Upper Arm or Wrist; What Type of BP Monitor is Most Accurate for You?

The Accurate Blood Pressure Monitor By American Heart Association

In the healthcare sector, there are lots of advancements had happened in the last few decades, and along with that we have witnessed many improvements in the heart care industry. Even a few decades back patients commonly use the mercury sphygmomanometer or aneroid BP monitor for assessment but over time and with new technology in recent times there are many types of BP monitors have been seen, for clinical and home assessments most of the time patients like to use upper arm and wrist BP monitors at home. Even though there is still some disagreement among the researchers about the accuracy of these two types of BP monitors. Later in this article, we’ll discuss it.

Traditionally, BP monitors are being worn on the upper arm. Then, why patients are using wrist blood pressure monitors? Because Obesity is considered one of the reasons for high BP and that’s why some people have bigger arm sizes and they can’t find the right-fitting cuff at home to measure their blood pressure. So, the only option left for them is to assess their blood pressure with a wrist blood pressure monitor.

However, there is a debate among the different researchers and organizations about these two types of BP monitors and most of the researchers consider upper arm BP monitors are more accurate than wrist BP monitors. Basically, wrist and upper arm BP monitors measures blood pressure in the same principle but they take the reading from the differently positioned arteries in our hand. In the researchers’ opinions, upper arm blood pressure monitors are more accurate since wrist BP monitors usually take the measurement from the radial artery and these types of arteries are far from our heart location whereas upper arm BP monitors usually assess the BP result from brachial arteries and these arteries are closer to the heart position. Moreover, from the early times of BP monitoring, doctors preferred to take the measurement from the upper arm and wrist BP monitors are usually showing elevated results than other upper arm BP monitors.

Since, patients who have acute hypertension are at a very risky point for any wrong measurement and it can lead them to different health issues, even death. They should use an upper arm BP monitor at their residence instead of wrist BP monitors. Renowned organizations like AHA and ESH also recommended upper arm BP monitors.

So, back to the earlier issue of using wrist BP monitors, For the large arm size patients, HINGMED brought a wide range of cuff sizes. These cuffs support a maximum of 42cm of arm circumference. So, patients with big arms can easily wear it and measure their blood pressure accurately. There are other features in HINGMED’s BP monitors that will undoubtedly help the patients to measure their BP with great accuracy.