Background. Hypertension is a common disorder, affecting approximately
50 million Americans. Because many people have this disorder and its
sequela, it is important not only to detect hypertension but also to m
onitor adequacy of control. Over the past few)rears, blood pressure mo
nitoring devices (BPMDs) have become available for individuals to meas
ure their blood pressure (BP) in the convenience of their-home. These
instruments are touted as being accurate. Methods, We conducted a stud
y with volunteers who use BPMDs to see how they are used and to assess
their accuracy A BP reading was considered accurate if the difference
s between the volunteers' and technicians' systolic and diastolic read
ings were both 10 mm Hg or less. Results, Of 91 patients, 31 (34%) obt
ained inaccurate readings. The inaccuracy could not be attributed to t
he type of the instrument, the cost of the instrument, the educational
level of the user, or the age of the instrument. Conclusions. This st
udy shows, despite other studies purporting accuracy, that a significa
nt number of inaccurate readings are obtained by patients using BPMDs.
Supervision of their use needs to be incorporated into the physician
follow-up to ensure that there is a reasonable correlation between val
ues obtained using the mercury sphygmomanometer and the BPMD.