CONTEC Ambulatory 24hr Blood Pressure Monitor Upper Arm Continuously BP Monitoring Adult Cuff

When you need to monitor night time BP, this is the perfect machine. Can set time intervals to your choosing and alert you when it's too high and too low..perfect fir Autonomic dysfunction issues.

Despite the system’s flaws, its ambulatory blood pressure (BP) monitoring capability was priceless for me- it completely changed my understanding of what my blood pressure was doing. I had been checking my BP frequently using a conventional cuff, because it was erratic and sometimes scarily high. The CONTEC unit let me see my real BP, measured over a full day and night, and it was normal! My own concern about my BP was causing it to jump up when I used a conventional cuff. With the ambulatory monitoring you soon get a bit bored with it, and the anxiety-triggered jumps go away. You do still see some high values, but those are due to you being active when the unit does the measurement.All of the criticisms of the User Manual are correct- it is terrible! Here are a few things I do:It is difficult to put the cuff on your arm, but once it is on you can carefully slide it off and on again without unwrapping it. Easy!To put the cuff on, drape the tube over your neck, and apply the cuff with the little ɸ symbol next to the inside of your elbow. Then put your shirt or top on. I don’t use the carrying bag, I just route the tube inside my shirt down to my hip on the side opposite to the cuff, pull the tube end up above my belt, plug in the main unit, and drop it in my pants’ pocket.To use the bathroom, I wait till just after a reading has been taken and then temporarily disconnect the main unit from the tube.To get a spot BP reading you can just press the green button. For ambulatory readings you have to work through the menus, choose the ABPM option, then set the On/Off option to Begin, then press the center button to start. Lastly you have to choose whether to delete your previous data or just add onto it. So if you need to remove the system for a while in the middle of a day you can long-press the center (OK) button to stop it, remove the system and do whatever you need to, reattach the system, and resume ABPM monitoring- just don’t delete your old data. Taking the system off for a few hours over the course of a day doesn’t hurt, you still get a good picture of how your BP is varying.In bed the readings will be slightly low if you are lying on your side opposite to the arm with the cuff. Not a big deal.You only need to do a day-long measurement once in a while, or if something changes.

I had hoped to use this device to do frequent blood pressure monitoring while sleeping or moving around. Unfortunately it is poorly made and poorly documented.I discovered one of the areas of poor make in the way of design immediatly upon inserting batteries. The device would not turn on. I had inserted brand new Duracell AAs. Upon examination I discovered the batteries were not engaging the positive contacts in the device due to plastic walls preventing the positive cap from mating with the device's positive metal contacts. See the photo that shows this. I tried various Duracells and none worked. Then I inserted some Kirkland (COSTCO) AAs that looked to have possibly a fraction of a millimeter longer positive contact and a more sloping shell shoulder. They worked, but with moving use, as would be the case in the ambulatory environment, such mechanical unreliability would be certain to result in erratic operation.Then I began the absurdly difficult task of reading the eighty plus page manual. There was no clear general explanation of how to use the device. To make matters much, much worse it was written by a person or persons for whom English is not a native language and was not edited to aid clarity. I have no idea why the makers do not bother to have their manuals cleaned up by competent editors.But wait there's more, way too much more reminding me to dispose of things in an environmentally safe way and on and on with very little helpful in setting up or using the device. Finally there where very obtuse instructions on set up and use scattered over 40 or 50 pages. The menu device interface is very difficult to navigate and even to see. The selection highlighting in a one pixel ring around the selection, so turn down the lights to see it, then turn them up to read the small print in the manual.Frustrated, I decided to determine if would at least take a blood pressure reading. It actually did, repeatedly. So I had a blood pressure device that would take blood pressure, but I had no instrument to confirm accuracy. There are a number of such devices on the market for 20% the cost of this one.No CD with software was included even though the manual said it was. The box had a URL sticker that implied software might be there, but upon trying it out I was warned the site was not secure. I have no desire to download software from an insecure site in the Peoples Republic of China.Should the manufacturer wish to remedy these and other problems that lead me and many others to return such products, I offer my services as a very experienced writer of technical books, presenter of technical matters to hundreds of seminars, and lawyer for very significant but clearly necessary fees. I await requests for proposals in this regard. Meanwhile this turkey is going right back to Amazon whom I thank for their return policy.