The Telelab personal blood pressure transmitter: accurate and reliable home monitoring for hypertensive patients.

We compared Telelab Personal Blood Pressure Transmitters to mercury sphygmomanometers on a random sample of 63 patients in an office setting and on 29 different patients in a home trial. Each patient was tested with the sphygmomanometer by one of two observers. Three consecutive measurements of each patient were averaged for each method. Although some differences between observers were statistically significant, they were not clinically significant. Differences between the two methods were well within the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation's accepted range for comparable medical equipment. The 29 hypertensive outpatients used the Telelab transmitter for periods ranging from 2 to 55 weeks during a clinical validation phase. The reliability and accuracy of the monitor were again demonstrated by frequent comparisons with office mercury sphygmomanometer measurements. The high degree of patient acceptance of the monitor for repeated readings over prolonged periods clearly adds to its usefulness.