I have a home monitor & I have noticed that where I place the cuff on my upper arm seems to make a big difference in my readings and I was wondering why this is. If I place the cuff so that the bottom edge of the cuff is at the elbow, the readings are much higher (around 140/90). If I place it about 1-2" above the bend in the elbow the readings are better (around 128/76). I always use my right arm & I rest it on the plastic shoebox container that I store the monitor in when I'm taking my BP. Does anyone know why or have experienced this difference?
Janice..What kind of monitor do you have? I bought the Omron self inflateable, and it tells you to have it about 1 inch up from the inside of your elbow. Sometimes mine is higher up as I can't get it just right everytime, but as long as the tube is over the brachial artery, it should be fine. Mine only alows me to use the left arm. I have noticed, even when the dr. checked it out, if it is in different places, you will get some weird readings.
The brand I have is called Marshall 97. A friend of mine gave it to me. The instructions with it also do say to put the cuff so that the bottom edge is 1-2" above the elbow crease. I'm just so surprised that the numbers are so different. At 140/90 (when the cuff is lower), I have a problem. When the cuff is placed higher and my readings are lower (tonight I got 122/83 and then 119/75 a little later), I probably don't have a problem.
If I were you I would bring it into your drs. office and have them check it out. When I first got mine, my hubby took it to his cardiologist and depending where it was placed, he got all kinds of wacky readings. They were doing it on purpose just to show him the difference it can make. When they placed it about 1-1 1/2 inches above his elbow it kept reading about the same all 4 times.
I took it to my dr. and he showed me how to place it on me, as I am much smaller than hubby and the cuff comes pretty far up my arm, almost to my armpit, but he also took about 3 readings and it was within 7 points of his BP taker. As long as it is above the elbow and the tube part is over the big artery your readings should be pretty much on target. Good luck! JJ
