Patients are now too fat for blood pressure test

BRITAIN’S obesity epidemic means many patients have become too fat to have their blood pressure taken.

Doctors have been forced to develop a new type of device that straps to the wrist.

This is because so many patients are now so big they cannot use the traditional device designed to go around the upper arm.

Blood pressure checks can help detect whether patients are at risk of heart attacks and strokes – both of which are more common in overweight people.

The traditional gauges work by doctors tightening a band around the patient’s upper arm, which cuts off blood flow. As this is released, the blood starts flowing again and can be detected using a sensor or a stethoscope.

However, soaring obesity rates mean many patients’ arms are often too wide to fit into the devices or too fatty for monitors to accurately measure blood flow.

To combat the problem, a device specifically for obese patients will be brought out later this year.

The checker, made by health electronics manufacturer Omron, straps around the wrist and links to an app that patients can use to check blood pressure at home.

Professor Roland Asmar, of the Cardiovascular Institute in Paris, monitored 33 patients whose arm circumference was more than 13in.

He found they could use the device at home to get results as accurate as those of a doctor in a clinic.

Professor Asmar said: ‘As physicians, we need to constantly adapt to ensure we meet the needs of our patients and a device like [this] is a good example of an innovation that can help us to better monitor our patients.’

He presented a study into the device at the European Society of Cardiology congress in Munich, Germany, this weekend.

The RS7 Intelli IT will go on sale for around £90 this year.