|  | | | Customer Reviews: | | | Average Customer Review: ( 49 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 17 found the following review helpful:
Pretty good monitor! Jun 02, 2011
By Jeff Pittman
"Jeff"
My doc doesn't think much of wrist monitors but given the lousy experience I've had with a couple of pretty pricey arm cuff monitors, I figured this was worth a try. It is working out surprisingly well for me.
PROS:
* Accurate (correlates very closely with old-school readings in my doc's office)
* Consistent (my other monitor gives dramatically different values within minutes of each reading)
* Small, no cuff and tube to deal with in addition to the monitor itself
* More convenient and travels well (again, because of no cuff and tube)
* Carrying case doubles as arm prop to get your wrist up to correct height
* Lighted indicator shows that your wrist is at the correct height (wide LCD version)
* Memory feature lets you store a lot of readings so you can show your doc without keeping a paper journal
CONS:
* No companion software to produce reports on your PC or I would have given 5 stars
* Very picky about wrist height during measurement (you get used to it tho)
One thing I've noticed about all monitors with a number of reviews is that there usually seems to be a relatively large group of satisfied users in the middle, a smaller group of users for whom the device always reads too low, and another smaller group of users for whom the device always reads too high. I am in the always-too-high outlier group for the Omron HEM-790IT, which most people (including my doc) find to be an excellent monitor. This seems to be true no matter the manufacturer or the model for some reason. So I guess with any monitor, your mileage may vary.
I have the "wide LCD" version which includes a few more features than the "large LCD" version. I don't use most of the extra features but I do think the lighted wrist height indicator on the wide version is worth the small additional cost. Others might appreciate the averaging and graphing features of the wide version. All I want is accurate, consistent readings and a memory. Because of my doc's prejudice against wrist monitors I didn't really expect a lot from this but am very pleasantly surprised. Recommended!
UPDATE 6/3/2011: I went in for a nurse/tech appointment this afternoon to check my BP since it has been a little high for a couple of weeks. The Panasonic NAILED the measurement the nurse got using the old style cuff device hanging on the wall in the exam room. Interestingly, she said that you can hold a wrist monitor to your chest at about heart level to get accurate readings, that is, you don't have to elevate your wrist to mid-air during inflation - just pretend you're honoring the flag or saying the pledge (if you find that imagery offensive, I'm not even remotely sorry). It seems to have worked as she said and I'll continue to try that technique, even though it's not what Panasonic recommends. It's easier.
8 of 8 found the following review helpful:
 This is good one. Accurate Jul 11, 2011
By mommylove
"dc"
This wrist BP monitor is surprisingly accurate. One must make sure to keep his or her wrist at the level of the heart for measurements or it will let you know that. But the measurements are pretty much accurate. It does pick up irregular pulse too so for people who suspect the same this can come in handy. The print is large and has memory for two people. I generally used a regular sphygmomanometer. Then I started with the omron digital BP monitor which was rather accurate too. I did have my reservations about the wrist monitor especially since I had come across some that were far from accurate. But this one is definitely reliable. Both myself and my husband who are physicians reach out to it more often now.
6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Color me impressed May 26, 2011
By Patrick Goetz
"cultural omnivore"
After an emergency spleen removal a couple of years ago I started having on and off problems with high blood pressure. My physician recommended that I get a blood pressure monitor, but warned me away from the wrist monitors, suggesting that they give inaccurate readings. I followed his advice and purchased the HEM-780 arm band monitor made by Omron, which was the best thing I could find at the local pharmacy. I used this device for a while, but then started to suspect that it was giving high readings, partly because the cuff was held on only by velcro and it seemed hard to get an appropriately snug fit. Some online reviews I read corroborated this suspicion, so I switched to an arm band monitor made by Life Source which had a better cuff design and had good reviews on line. This is the unit I've been using ever since. I should also add that at some point I did try out a wrist blood pressure monitor made by a different manufacturer and found that it gave unreliable readings, as my physician had predicted.
I picked up the Panasonic blood pressure monitor through the Amazon vine program mostly out of curiosity. Of course the first thing I did was to measure my blood pressure using the Life Source monitor, followed by the Panasonic. Readers of this review should be aware that blood pressure readings are extremely variable, depending on the time of day, the amount of stress you feel at that moment, and how high your arm is when taking the reading. I find that -- even without moving my arm -- back to back measurements can vary by as much as 10-15 points in the systolic reading and 5-10 points in the diastolic. Biofeedback must play a role, as almost always my blood pressure readings decrease with consecutive measurement. With this in mind, I found that the Panasonic monitor gave roughly the same reading as the Life Source monitor at the same arm elevation. This is where things get interesting, though. The Panasonic monitor includes a wrist height sensor which checks to see if your wrist is at the same elevation as your heart. If your arm is too high (leading to a too-low pressure measurement) the monitor will flash a blue light and indicate a down arrow; an up arrow will flash if your wrist is too low. Using the wrist height monitor I realized I had been measuring my blood pressure with my arm too low. After placing my wrist at the appropriate height (i.e. higher than before) I got a reading which indicated that my blood pressure is currently lower than I thought it was based on using the other monitor -- and in fact closer to the readings given by actual nurses reading my blood pressure by hand. Overall, this seems like an excellent device; highly portable, and even comes with a plastic carrying case, making it convenient for travel and storage. One caveat: this device will briefly place quite a bit of pressure on your wrist, which some people might find painful. As long as this is not an issue, I heartily recommended this unit to those who need to monitor their blood pressure.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
I love being able to take weekly readings. Jul 31, 2011
By Jennifer
I have a love-hate relationship with my blood pressure. It seems to be randomly high and normal at office visits, so I love having this at home to take one reading a week so I have something more to tell the doctor (on the few times a year I have to see a doctor). It's very easy to take a reading, though you will really have to delve into the instructions to figure out and be able to understand the trending display. Personally, I just keep track manually (which they include a paper chart for). I had blood pressure issues during my first pregnancy, and I would have loved to have a monitor at home--so I will likely use this during my next pregnancy as well (especially since my doctor is quite a distance away). I can also imagine that it would be great if you happened to be on bed rest for your pregnancy.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Great monitor! Oct 14, 2011
By Mom of Two
We bought this monitor bc our 8 year old son takes clonodine to control his tics; his doctor is in another city and asked us to email bp and pulse every week. The cuff fits him well and the readings are very accurate. This turned out to be a great purchase for the price!
See all 49 customer reviews on Amazon.com
|
| | |
