Blood Pressure Monitor Reviews 

LifeSource UA-767 Blood Pressure Monitor

LifeSource is part of A&D Medical, a leading manufacturer of home-use and professional electronic healthcare equipment. Its UA-767 series of automatic blood pressure monitors incorporates a number of models with varying functions. You can read more about each model at the LifeSource website.

Here is a company description of the basic UA-767 unit:

The One-Step Auto-Inflation monitor makes self-measurement of blood pressure as easy as a push of a button. Whether the monitor is used to distinguish sustained hypertension from white-coat hypertension, improve patient compliance to treatment or as a preventive health management program, it can all be monitored using only one button.

The 16mm digital display makes this monitor easy to read and offers a unique simultaneous readout of systolic and diastolic pressure, and pulse. This monitor is available in two cuff sizes: large and medium (small cuff is available separately). A large print instruction guide and quick start card are clearly written in English, French and Spanish.

In June 2003 Consumer Reports journal published a survey of blood pressure monitors. This is available to subscribers only. However, in 2004 the Pharmacist's Letter/Prescriber's Letter published a three-page newssheet "Home Blood Pressure Monitors" (pdf file), for doctors to give their patients. It included a comparison table of leading models. It said that, among automatic arm units, the "products rated most highly by Consumer Reports" were the LifeSource One Step UA-767V and the LifeSource One Step UA-767VL.

In May 2005, Choice magazine, the Australian equivalent of Consumer Reports, published its own survey of 18 home blood pressure monitors. (The report is available here, on a pay-per-view basis.) It is worth noting that the UA-767 was the top-rated model in Australia.

An excellent background resource is “Home Blood Pressure Monitoring: A Technology That Has Come of Age,” an article on the US Pharmacist website:

The home blood pressure monitor market is flooded with a multitude of manufacturers offering closely competitive products. These products continue to change with respect to their complexity, variety of functions, and cost. Accuracy should be the primary goal for device selection. The number of products available to patients can understandably cause confusion and an opportunity for the pharmacist to provide knowledgeable information to the buyer. Internet-based medical device retailers are another common venue for purchasing a monitor. Data gathered by Information Resources, Inc showed that at least 65% of the home blood pressure monitors in the US are sold by Omron Healthcare Corporation.34 Other popular device manufacturers include A&D Medical/LifeSource, Lumiscope, Mark of Fitness, Panasonic, and Samsung. All are producing high-quality, clinically tested monitors.

Here is an Amazon.com customer review of the UA-767V:

I've bought a few of these products and some, the wrist models mostly, require one to hold one's arm in odd positions. Others don't give reliable readings. I've tested this one with my home nurse and it is always precise. Also, you can set the maximum pressure so it doesn't get too tight. The cuff's design makes it extremely easy to put on because the loop is preset and it needs only be adjusted. Granted, it doesn't have fancy features like remembering blood pressures, but one need only write these down. It also doesn't have a plug. It operates exclusively off of batteries, but this is easier anyway.

After trying several frustrating models and getting inaccurate readings from automatic readers while I have been in hospitals, I was elated to find this simple, accurate blood pressure monitor. It isn't fancy, but the fancier ones that I have purchased have never been so accurate, and the last thing that a monitor should do is frustrate its owner and raise his blood pressure!
 

* Get the Latest Price on the LifeSource UA-767V Blood Pressure Monitor.

May 21^st, 2007
 

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