Comparison of the Microlife Blood Pressure Monitor With the Omron Blood Pressure Monitor for Detecting Atrial Fibrillation
Publication Date
2014
Journal Title
Am J Cardiol
Abstract
Screening for atrial fibrillation (AF) by assessing the pulse is recommended in high-risk patients. Some clinical trials demonstrated that the Micro life blood pressure monitor (BPM) with AF detection is more accurate than pulse palpation. This led to a change in practice guidelines in the United Kingdom where AF screening with the Micro life device is recommended instead of pulse palpation. Many BPMs have irregular heart beat detection, but they have not been shown to detect AF reliably. Recently, one study, in a highly select population, suggested that the Omron BPM with irregular heart beat detection has a higher sensitivity for AF than the Micro life BPM. We compared the Micro life and Omron BPMs to electrocardiographic readings for AF detection in general cardiology patients. Inclusion criteria were age >= 50 years without a pacemaker or defibrillator. A total of 199 subjects were enrolled, 30 with AF. Each subject had a 12-lead electrocardiography, 1 Omron BPM reading, and 3 Micro life BPM readings as per device instructions. The Omron device had a sensitivity of 30% (95% confidence interval [CI] 15.4% to 49.1%) with the sensitivity for the first Micro life reading of 97% (95% CI 81.4% to 100%) and the Micro life readings using the majority rule (AF positive if at least 2 of 3 individual readings were positive for AF) of 100% (95% CI 85.9% to 100%). Specificity for the Omron device was 97% (95% CI 92.5% to 99.2%) and for the first Micro life reading of 90% (95% CI 83.8% to 94.2%) and for the majority rule Micro life device of 92% (95% CI 86.2% to 95.7%; p
Volume Number
114
Issue Number
7
Pages
1046-1048
Document Type
Article
EPub Date
2014/09/13
Status
Northwell Researcher
Facility
Northwell Health
Primary Department
Cardiology
Additional Departments
General Internal Medicine
PMID
DOI
10.1016/j.amjcard.2014.07.016