Blood Pressure
Blood pressure is a measure of how strongly your blood presses against the blood vessels as it pumps around your body. If this pressure is high (hypertension), or varies a lot, it puts a strain on the vessels, and contribute to over half of all strokes.
As there are no symptoms, the only way to know whether your BP is too high is to measure it. Your blood pressure will be checked at each appointment, and you may be asked to use a blood pressure monitor at home, or wear a monitor to check your BP overnight.
Unless we tell you otherwise, we aim for BP to be 130/80mmHg or less. If it is high or varies, we will discuss medication with you.
24 Hour Blood Pressure Monitoring or Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring (ABPM)
This is when your blood pressure is measured as you move around, living your normal daily life. It uses a small digital blood pressure machine that is attached to a belt around your waist and connects to a cuff around your upper arm. It’s small enough that you can go about your normal daily life and sleep with it on.
Telemetric blood pressure monitoring
If we find your blood pressure is higher than we would recommend, we may ask you to take readings at home. Some monitors transmit the readings you take using Bluetooth to a 'hub' which sends the results to us within a few minutes. This allows us to monitor the measurements you take and adjust your medications as necessary. Other monitors are more basic, and come with a form to write down your readings.