A comparison of utility of a wrist-worn blood pressure monitor with arm cuff aneroid sphygmomanometer.

INTRODUCTION: Hypertension is a leading cause of co-morbidities across the world. Among hypertensive patients, a simple self-monitoring of blood pressure (BP) can improve compliance toward lifestyle modifications and drugs. A wide variety of electronic devices for the measurement of BP are available in the market and are recommended by different authorities. Owing to the portability and ease of its use, wrist BP monitors are an attractive alternative to the routine aneroid sphygmomanometers. However, there are no Indian studies on the comparison of wrist BP monitors based on oscillometry with the standard upper arm BP measurement using an aneroid BP instrument.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Simultaneous BP readings were recorded under ideal conditions, in accordance to AHA guidelines, using a wrist BP monitor and aneroid sphygmomanometer in 150 healthy volunteers. The average of the systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP), mean arterial pressure, and pulse pressures (PPs) measured by the two instruments were calculated.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: It was found that the wrist BP monitor overestimates systolic, diastolic, mean arterial, and PP readings when compared to the aneroid meter. Our findings are concordant with some previous studies that elaborate on the exaggeration of both SBP and DBP by wrist monitor by a marginal value.