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The science behind on-the-wrist blood pressure tracking

empirical.health

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Re: The science behind on-the-wrist blood pressure tracking

#81

Post by FollowingTheDao »

bamboozled wrote: post #80
FollowingTheDao wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have labile hypertension so my BP readings are whack. It is usually up at 160/100 at the doctors office but at home it is normal. Docs did not believe me and were trying to force me onto meds till they put a 24 hour monitor on me. BP spikes and drops during the day and drops to 100/60 at night. Labile hypertension is the most difficult to treat. So far my heart is perfect for a late 50's dude. Just had an colorflow…

Funny I had a similar experience, late twenties, felt completely healthy, but was constantly having chest pains. I was a bit over weight at the time but I walked everywhere and was really active, doctors office my BP was always ~ 140/80, he prescribed me meds but I wasn't satisfied with that. I went and got a full heart study done and a 24hr blood pressure monitoring done, my heart and BP are totally fine apparently.…

I have frequent chest pains as well since my early 20s! They tell me it is costochondritis but my inflammatory markers are always exceptional. I know what it is now and it is totally neurological, both issues.

Wonder if you have noticed if you were neurologically sensitive to any types of foods?

Re: The science behind on-the-wrist blood pressure tracking

#82

Post by selimthegrim »

saltcured wrote: post #30
stewh_eng wrote: post #10

I'm a med device engineer and have watched the hopes and dreams of cuffless BP monitoring tech. I hope we get there as it will be hugely important. However, remember tech is only a small part of the battle. We need to figure out clinically what to do with all this new continuous data. I am very sceptical PPG alone will be capable for many reasons. Aktiia does indeed have European regs clearance. But, they don't have…

I wonder if you've heard of the Resonance Sonomanometry method claimed by Esperto Medical https://esperto.health/ and how you think this compares to others. It seems like it might be an ultrasonic method? They claim no calibration needed, but I don't know if it is tolerant to movement and posture. I can also imagine this might be too power intensive to put in a smartwatch form factor. Maybe more of a bedside or clini…

I take it you had a good opinion of their researchers…

Re: The science behind on-the-wrist blood pressure tracking

#83

Post by trq01758 »

nisegami wrote: post #34

Two tidbits from me: Several years ago, I got an omron wrist cuff blood pressure monitor. Some doctors showed heavy skepticism at the time but I've never seen any reason to think it's inaccurate when properly mounted and with healthy batteries. I had a sleep study done last year using a brand new machine the lab got (literally unboxed while I was there) that uses a combination of the ecg signals and pulse timing to c…

I guess that "properly mounted" may be a problem for a lot of people. According to operating manual measurements should be taken at heart level with 30±5 cm distance between top of the seat and top of the table. Outside of that ±5 cm difference you may get inaccurate results.

Re: The science behind on-the-wrist blood pressure tracking

#84

Post by amelius »

corry wrote: post #4

Actually, there is a wrist device called "Aktiia" that's approved for use for continuous BP monitoring with clinical accuracy by the UK and German health authorities (I believe). It's a bit of a pain to get over the pond, but with a shipment-forwarding company + a UK App Store account you can get up and running. I've dabbled a bit with it and it's very close to the cuff measurements. It works by calibrating with thei…

What extra useful information can you get from continuous BP measurement compared to once or twice daily measurement?

Re: The science behind on-the-wrist blood pressure tracking

#85

Post by bamboozled »

FollowingTheDao wrote: post #81
bamboozled wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny I had a similar experience, late twenties, felt completely healthy, but was constantly having chest pains. I was a bit over weight at the time but I walked everywhere and was really active, doctors office my BP was always ~ 140/80, he prescribed me meds but I wasn't satisfied with that. I went and got a full heart study done and a 24hr blood pressure monitoring done, my heart and BP are totally fine apparently.…

I have frequent chest pains as well since my early 20s! They tell me it is costochondritis but my inflammatory markers are always exceptional. I know what it is now and it is totally neurological, both issues. Wonder if you have noticed if you were neurologically sensitive to any types of foods?

Eventually they subsided, I don't even remember when, and I've never really had them since...unless I have reflux, which does happen for me occasionally.

I'm learning I just can't really do coffee / caffeine though, I don't think it's ever really been good for me, it causes reflux and anxiety for me, but I just loved coffee to much. I gave up recently however!

You might have heart burn occasionally too ?

Re: The science behind on-the-wrist blood pressure tracking

#86

Post by smolder »

amelius wrote: post #84
corry wrote: post #4

Actually, there is a wrist device called "Aktiia" that's approved for use for continuous BP monitoring with clinical accuracy by the UK and German health authorities (I believe). It's a bit of a pain to get over the pond, but with a shipment-forwarding company + a UK App Store account you can get up and running. I've dabbled a bit with it and it's very close to the cuff measurements. It works by calibrating with thei…

What extra useful information can you get from continuous BP measurement compared to once or twice daily measurement?

How specific events throughout the day affect your BP, like things you ate, caffeine, a walk in the cold/heat, exercise, or a conversation. I'd say it's all useful info for perspective on how to manage stress and circulatory health.

Re: The science behind on-the-wrist blood pressure tracking

#87

Post by jackcosgrove »

How long does calibrating an on-the-wrist sensor take with a cuff?

I used to work at Higi which has many blood pressure cuffs in public locations. I'm wondering if it's practical to calibrate a smartwatch sensor at one of these, or if it would take too long when you're grocery shopping or at the pharmacy.

I'm also wondering if new generation cuffs are required. The cuffs we used would be pretty old at this point.

Re: The science behind on-the-wrist blood pressure tracking

#88

Post by Steve44 »

nisegami wrote: post #34

Two tidbits from me: Several years ago, I got an omron wrist cuff blood pressure monitor. Some doctors showed heavy skepticism at the time but I've never seen any reason to think it's inaccurate when properly mounted and with healthy batteries. I had a sleep study done last year using a brand new machine the lab got (literally unboxed while I was there) that uses a combination of the ecg signals and pulse timing to c…

I've an arm cuff monitor but recently bought a wrist one, both Omron, because my wife didn't like the arm cuff.

What I found was the wrist cuff was incredibly sensitive to both positioning and to any movement, it was harder to get a consistent reading.

Re: The science behind on-the-wrist blood pressure tracking

#89

Post by amelius »

smolder wrote: post #86
amelius wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What extra useful information can you get from continuous BP measurement compared to once or twice daily measurement?

How specific events throughout the day affect your BP, like things you ate, caffeine, a walk in the cold/heat, exercise, or a conversation. I'd say it's all useful info for perspective on how to manage stress and circulatory health.

I can see how the information can be useful from a big-data perspective (finding correlations between the data of thousands of people), but for individuals I'm not convinced yet. For example, how do you know if a spike in BP is normal, or if it's only happening in your specific case and it needs attention?

Re: The science behind on-the-wrist blood pressure tracking

#90

Post by seanc »

jackcosgrove wrote: post #87

How long does calibrating an on-the-wrist sensor take with a cuff? I used to work at Higi which has many blood pressure cuffs in public locations. I'm wondering if it's practical to calibrate a smartwatch sensor at one of these, or if it would take too long when you're grocery shopping or at the pharmacy. I'm also wondering if new generation cuffs are required. The cuffs we used would be pretty old at this point.

Now I'm wondering how well calibrated those automatic public cuffs are in the first place...
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