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I didn't reverse-engineer the protocol for my blood pressure monitor in 24 hours

(james.belchamber.com)
327 points jamesbelchamber | 1 comments | 11 Nov 25 21:25 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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cestith ◴[11 Nov 25 21:45 UTC] No.45893306[source]▶
Regarding white coat hypertension, the shot isn’t always necessary. Some people’s blood pressure just goes up from the stress of the clinical setting.
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alexfoo ◴[11 Nov 25 22:52 UTC] No.45894005[source]▶
White coast hypertension isn't just about a clinical setting, it's more generally about the worry about the results of having your BP measured. [EDIT] OK, well maybe there's another type of hypertension which is related to anxiety about a high result regardless of the measurement setting.

I have to take daily BP measurements during titration for ADHD medication. (Using an _A&D UA-611 Plus_ machine at home.)

I can put the cuff on my arm and sit at my desk for 20 minutes to be nicely rested and calm, and then take 5 different measurements with a few minutes between each one. They'll vary quite wildly (anything from, say, 115/75 to 135/90) despite not moving between measurements or having any reason to be more or less agitated. I generally just ignore the low/high outliers and average the others. There's no pattern either, sometimes the outliers are first, sometimes last.

Also it's not just the monitor I have at home, the same is true of a probably more trustworthy machine in a clinical setting. I mentioned this to my doctor when I last visited and we saw the same thing with multiple measurements using a more sophisticated machine at the clinic.

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wpollock ◴[11 Nov 25 23:55 UTC] No.45894546[source]▶
> I can put the cuff on my arm and sit at my desk for 20 minutes to be nicely rested and calm, and then take 5 different measurements with a few minutes between each one. ...

Doesn't it take more than a few minutes for one's circulation to return to normal after a BP measurement?

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1. devilbunny ◴[12 Nov 25 04:03 UTC] No.45896272{3}[source]▶
Eh, not really. We measure blood pressure every five minutes (or less) for patients under anesthesia. They're pretty reliable. Of course, they're unconscious, so they can't really anticipate the discomfort of the cuff going up on their arm and react to that, and frankly given that they are being carved open the pain of a cuff is pretty minimal by comparison.