Kitchen table review - A&D UA-851

Welcome to another of my Kitchen Table Reviews.  I aim to give validated blood pressure monitors the once over and look at them in terms of value for money, bells and whistles and ease of use.

Manufacturer: A&D Medical

Model: UA-851 Automatic Blood Pressure Monitor

Features:

•             Irregular Heart Beat (IHB) monitor

•             Blood pressure classification indicator

•             90 reading memory and an “average” reading

•             Extra large 3-line display for an easier read

•             One-touch management

•             SlimFit comfortable cuff

What’s in the box?

Open the box of your UA-851 and you will find the monitor.  What is clear from the start is that while the monitor is small enough to be portable, it really works best as a desktop monitor that you use on a regular basis.  The monitor comes with batteries, a standard A&D cuff which measures 22-32cm (fine for average people, however, if you have a larger upper arm you might want to enquire about a large cuff when purchasing), and a dust cover for the monitor.  The face of the UA-851 is clean, simple and large making it easy to read.  A large single button starts the monitor up and automatically inflates the cuff to begin your measurement.

The screen has big numbers on and both the systolic and diastolic blood pressure are clearly marked with the pulse beats per minute coming at the bottom of the screen. On the left hand side of the screen which has a battery indicator and the clever bits.

The monitor stands upright on a desk or a table and at the rear is a handy place to store the cuff.

Bells and whistles?

First off, the IHB or irregular heart beat monitor. What is this useful for. Well, if you know you suffer from an irregular heart beat or atrial fibrillation, this may well be able to detect it, although it is important to remember that the monitor can only pick up an irregular heart beat if it happens while you are having your blood pressure measured. Not everyone has “regular” irregular heart beats so it may not pick it up. It is, however, useful if you have a family history of stroke or irregular heart beat. Atrial Fibrilation is a risk factor for stroke and it is important that it is detected – this monitor may help you do this.

The other clever bit is the WHO Classification Indicator. WHO? They are the World Health Organisation based in Switzerland and interested in the health of us all globally. The WHO have a clear classification system which enables you to place yourself within a spectrum from optimal (120/80mmHg or below) through pre-hypertensive, mild and moderate hypertension all the way to severe hypertension. This monitor does it for you with a colour coded strip alongside the screen which clearly marks where you are in the classification.  Personally, I thought that this would be really useful for those doing occasional readings or who want to make sure that there blood pressure is staying where it should be.

Ease of use?

It is very easy to use. No need for an idiots guide as it is simply a matter of putting the cuff on properly, sitting down and pushing the single button.  All the figures are very clear and it provides what you need.

Memory

This is where the UA-851 stands out.  It has a 90 reading memory – more than enough for most people – so that you can keep an eye on your blood pressure readings over a period of time.  It also has an average reading function which will provide you with an average of all the readings in the memory as you take them and thus give you an idea of the direction in which your blood pressure is moving – a great feature if you are making some lifestyle changes or starting or changing medication.

Who is it suitable for?

This is a good monitor if you want to measure your blood pressure on a regular basis.  The desktop style of the monitor enables it to be left out which will mean you will probably remember to measure your blood pressure more often and the good memory and average reading function also helps.  And let’s not forget the pretty handy IHB (irregular heartbeat) function and the WHO band which gives you a very clear indicator of where your blood pressure stands against international guidelines.

Star quality

I will give this monitor 4 stars.  It is very easy to use, is clinically validated and has a 5 year guarantee.  It has a good memory and some nice bells and whistles.  It doesn’t attach to your computer which might be a negative for some, but all in all, a nice piece of kit.

Cost

The RRP of the UA-767Plus is around £69.99.  Mine was supplied by Experts in Blood Pressure products and they are selling it for £39.54 - so really good value for a clinically validated monitor.

Clinical validation details

The monitor is on the British Hypertension Society list of validated monitors. It has a European protocol pass.

Pre-eclampsia and gestational hypertension may be linked to increased risk of stroke

Having high blood pressure while you're pregnant may be linked to having a stroke within several years, a new study says.  This link is stronger if your baby was premature, said the study published in the journal Stroke.  "We know these women are at risk, but no one really knows if there (is) anything to do about it," said Dr. Baha Sibai, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in Ohio, and not affiliated with the study.

About one in 300 women aged 20 to 39 have strokes in the US each year, according to the American Heart Association.  The researchers found that women aged 15 to 40 had about a one in 150 chance of having a stroke within six years, if they had high blood pressure during pregnancy. If a woman had both high blood pressure and a premature delivery, this jumped to about a one in 110 chance.

There was also a one in 225 chance of having a stroke if the baby was premature, even if the mother didn't have high blood pressure while she was pregnant.  The researchers looked at two conditions that involve high blood pressure during pregnancy. One, gestational hypertension, is blood pressure greater than 140/90 after the 20th week of pregnancy, said study co-author Fung-Chang Sung, a professor of public health at the China Medical University in Taiwan.

Healthy blood pressure is 120/80 or lower, according to the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI).  About 20 percent of women go on to develop the second condition, preeclampsia. That life-threatening disorder involves high blood pressure during the second half of pregnancy and protein in the urine. It affects about five percent of pregnant women in the US, according to the NHLBI.

Doctors have known about the link between high blood pressure during pregnancy and stroke for about 30 years, said Sibai. These women should be followed more closely after they have their babies, to see if more attention to their health would reduce the risk of stroke later in life, he said.

What this study added was a look at the medical records of about 5800 Taiwanese women, about 1000 of whom had high blood pressure during pregnancy.  Within six years of having a baby, 21 of the women with high blood pressure had a stroke. In women who did not have high blood pressure while they were pregnant, 40 had a stroke in the same time period.

Not very many women of that age have strokes, said Dr. David Williams, an obstetric consultant at the University College London Hospital in England, and it may have been better to study older women.  "Sometime after menopause would be a good time to look at, because that's the time when risk increases," he said.  To reduce the risk of stroke, Williams suggests the usual advice of keeping fit, eat sensibly and don't smoke.  "Apart from indentifying women at an increased risk, we don't have any magic bullet" to stop this problem, he said.

Source: Reuters Health

Cut down on salt to improve your blood pressure

Cutting down on salt is one of the easiest ways to make a difference to your blood pressure.  We all eat too much of it and in the UK we eat an average of 9g per day when we really should be eating no more than 6g.  The problem is not really in the salt that we add to our food – although it makes sense to cut that out – try using a product like Lo-Salt – if you cannot do without the flavour on your chips.  The problem is in the amount of processed food that we eat.  Salt is in so many things that it is very easy to come to the end of the day and find you have far exceeded the recommended intake of salt.  Take bread for example.  Each slice of bread you eat contains about 1/2g of salt – and some of the speciality breads you might buy are even worse.  Other things like soup, biscuits, ketchup and ready meals contain vast amounts of salt.  It is important, if you are serious about cutting salt out of your diet, that you start to read labels and get to grip with the hidden salt that you are eating – it accounts for around 80% of the salt you eat each day.

Salt helps raise your blood pressure by encouraging your body to hold on to water.  The more salt you eat, the more you retain water.  The more water you retain the higher your blood pressure becomes.  Also, if you are on blood pressure medications like a diuretic, salt decreases the impact of the medicine.

Americans not being effectively treated for high blood pressure and cholesterol

One out of every three adult Americans has high cholesterol levels and two-thirds of them do not have it under control, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday. Similarly, one out of every three adults has high blood pressure and half of them do not have it under control. High blood pressure and high cholesterol are two of the major risk factors for heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular diseases, which are the leading cause of death in the United States, killing 800,000 people every year. Overall, 100 million Americans have high blood pressure, high cholesterol or both, and that has serious health and economic consequences for the country, according to the new CDC report released in an early version of the agency's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The conditions cost the country $300 billion per year in direct medical costs alone -- $1 out of every $6 spent for healthcare -- and that number is expected to triple in the next 20 years, said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the CDC director. "The bottom line is, high blood pressure and cholesterol are out of control."

The data for the study came from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which interviewed and examined 11,154 participants over the age of 18 between 2005 and 2008. The data may be somewhat conservative because it did not include the elderly residing in nursing homes and other institutions, who have a high incidence of age-related hypertension.  Blood pressure should be less than 120/80, and requires management if it is higher than 140/90. LDL cholesterol (also known as bad cholesterol) should be less than 160 for people without heart disease or diabetes; less than 130 for people without heart disease or diabetes but with two or more other risk factors for heart disease; and below 100 for people with heart disease or diabetes.

During the period of the study, 68 million adult Americans had high blood pressure, about the same number as a decade ago. Of those, 48 million were receiving drugs for their condition and 31 million had their condition under control. Surprisingly, 86% of those with uncontrolled blood pressure had insurance, suggesting that they simply did not take advantage of it -- most likely because hypertension generally does not exhibit any symptoms.

An estimated 71 million Americans had high cholesterol levels during the study period, but just 34 million were being treated and only 23 million had their cholesterol levels under control. The proportion being treated had grown from 28.4% a decade earlier, suggesting significant progress in the area, Frieden said, and the prevalence of control increased from 14.6% to 33.2%. Among those with uncontrolled cholesterol levels, 82.8% reported having some form of insurance.

In a Tuesday news conference, Frieden had a message for doctors: "Controlling blood pressure and cholesterol is one of, if not the, most important thing you can do for your patient." He also called for increased efforts to reduce sodium in food, both in processed foods and in restaurants. Reducing average daily sodium intake from 3,400 milligram to 2,300 milligrams could reduce hypertension by as many as 11 million cases, and reducing it to 1,500 milligrams per day could reduce hypertension by an additional 16.4 million cases.

Source: LA Times