Home measurement with an accurate machine can be very worthwhile, it can give you more control over your blood pressure and be reassuring. Many patients also find that their readings are lower at home than in the surgery.

In general an upper arm monitor will give you a more accurate reading and all of the research studies on blood pressure have been done with measurements from the upper arm. The first wrist monitor to be validated as accurate by the British Hypertension Society has recently been added to their list (see below). If you want to use a wrist monitor, it is vital that you follow the instructions for use very carefully, as the cuff around the wrist needs to placed exactly at the level of the heart to give an accurate reading. Even then, a special computer chip has to change the reading because blood pressure is different at the wrist compared to the upper arm.

Click on the following link to view blood pressure machines that are of a good quality (validated by the British hypertension society): www.bhsoc.org/bp_monitors

Wrist devices are subject to errors that are not presently evaluated in the available validation protocols. The most important source of error with wrist devices is the position of the arm in relation to the heart. A wrist device may fulfil the accuracy criteria of a validation protocol when strict attention is paid to having the wrist at heart level but in home use this may not happen and as a consequence the measurements can become inaccurate. For this reason validated upper arm devices are recommended in preference to wrist devices.

We recommend that you purchase a home Blood Pressure monitor that is validated by the British hypertension society.

We also recommend that you check your blood pressure using the waiting room blood pressure machine when you are waiting for an appointment. Go for your appointment 5 minutes early to do this. You will need to ask a receptionist the first time how to use it (when you should go 10 minutes early).

To view wrist devices that are acceptable, click on:
www.bhsoc.org/bp_monitors

How often should I be doing readings?
For patient with no known blood pressure problem, you can check your readings each day for 1 week or so; please make a record each reading, and then work out the average of each reading.

For patients with known blood pressure issues, or who are on tablets for high blood pressure, fall into two groups.

Firstly, there are those patients whose blood pressure is high and are checking their blood pressure - about once a week is fine.

Secondly, there are those patients who are known to have high blood pressure for which they are receiving treatment - these patients will want to monitor their blood pressure occasionally.

Patients with high blood pressure will be interested to know that readings at home can be much lower that at the surgery; this is called "white coat hypertension"; in fact, the nurse will add 10/5 to your home readings to get an equivalent surgery reading upon which the targets are based.

Please ask the nurse, next time you are in, what is your target blood pressure. But you will need to subtract 10/5 to this to give you the equivalent target using your home blood pressure machine.

Report your blood pressure

We would like to know the average of your latest blood pressure readings.

Please submit this information to us on the following form. Your blood pressure reading will be managed according to a protocol, and you will be contacted and informed of the time to report your next reading.

Please note: The information sent by using this form is not encrypted and is no more secure than normal email. Do not use this form to send us any sensitive information, request prescriptions, or ask for health advice. Please include your name and a valid email address so we can reply to you.