Having a comfortable and reliable way for prolonged blood pressure monitoring is something we’ve been long waiting for. Holter monitors do the job reliably, but they are far from being comfortable, even if you manage to somehow find a tolerable sleeping position with the bulky box, it will wake you up several times during the night inflating the cuff. 24-hour measurements are clearly more informative than sporadic readings – and we also have to mention that there is no guarantee that patients carry out the measurements properly with a traditional device. This is why I had high hopes when starting to test the BioBeat 24-hour blood pressure monitor.
The technology itself is based on reflective photoplethysmography (PPG), a noninvasive optical method which measures the heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, blood pressure, and several other cardio-pulmonary parameters.
I have tested several blood pressure monitoring devices in the past few years, but none of them have truly delivered so far. While the iHeart was pretty convincing as a blood pressure monitor, it didn’t offer much more than a traditional device with a fancied-up look. The Omron on the other hand was plain useless as a smartwatch. So, let’s see what we can expect in this area today.
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