Accuracy of the Microlife large-extra large-sized cuff (32-52 cm) coupled to an automatic oscillometric device.

To determine the accuracy of the large-extra large-sized (L-XL) cuff (32-52 cm) coupled to a Microlife WatchBP Office ABI blood pressure measuring device tested according to the requirements of the International Protocol of the European Society of Hypertension. The L-XL cuff tested in this study is designed to provide accurate blood pressure measurements in patients with large arms (arm circumference 6532 cm) over a wide range of arm circumferences using a single 145\ub11 7320\ub11 mm bladder. The evaluation was made in 33 patients with a mean\ub1standard deviation age of 53\ub117 years (range: 30-96 years). Their systolic blood pressure (SBP) was 142\ub121 mmHg (range: 110-180 mmHg), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) was 87\ub114 mmHg (range: 62-106 mmHg) and arm circumference was 36\ub15 cm (range: 32-50 cm). Blood pressure measurements were made in the sitting position. The L-XL cuff coupled to the WatchBP Office ABI passed all three phases of the European Society of Hypertension protocol for SBP and DBP. Mean blood pressure differences between device and observer were -1.3\ub15.1 mmHg for SBP and -1.8\ub15.8 mmHg for DBP. Similar device-observer differences were observed in patients divided into two subgroups according to whether their arm circumference was above or below the median in the group. These results indicate that the L-XL cuff coupled to the WatchBP Office ABI monitor provides accurate blood pressure readings in patients with large arms over a wide range of arm circumferences