At-home BP monitors may not have been validated for accuracy

People often buy at-home blood pressure monitors — in the form of upper arm cuffs or wristband wearables — from large retailers such as Amazon and eBay, and a new study evaluating such devices in Australia finds that the vast majority have not been validated for accuracy. Less than 6% of the nearly 980 unique monitors available for purchase online had been validated — in which the device had been tested using an international protocol for accuracy and had the results published in a peer-reviewed journal, or in which the device was shown to be similar to a previously validated device. Devices that had been validated tended to be more expensive, while none of the wristband monitoring devices was validated. Physicians should ensure that patients using BP monitors at home are buying appropriate devices, the authors suggest, and recommend that no wristband devices be purchased.