Can you feel irregular hearbeats under an electronic BP monitor cuff?

I'm having a little disagreement with my brother and his wife. We live in different states, so we generally email. He has taken some medical in college, but his wife was a cardiac nurse for 40 years, now retired. OK, I have high BP pressure at times, so my PCP wants me to monitor it regularly. I'm, on Losartin 25mg a day. I bought an Omron Series 5 Upper Arm Cuff monitor, model # BP7250 about a year and a half ago. About 6 months ago, I was starting to get sporadic"irregular heartbeat" notifications with either a 2 for 2 beats or a 3 for 3 or more beats irregular. I assume it's normal to feel the beats under the cuff when it's deflating in between it's reading of systolic and diastolic. However, I can feel missed beats under the cuff, and after I feel that, the monitor gives me the "irregular heartbeat" icon. If I feel regular rhythm, no warning given. I told my brother about it, and he claims I'm full of it, and you can't feel irregular or missed beats beneath the cuff, that they are Korotkoff sounds, not heartbeats, and thus can't feel if irregular. His nurse wife backs him up. He also states that no home monitor can detect irregular heartbeats, that it's a gimmick, and the monitors aren't even accurate with measuring BP. I started getting the feeling and warning more. I told my PCP, he eventually took an ECG, which was normal, but also set me up for a 48 hour Holter monitor, which also came back normal. So what is the scoop? A bad BP monitor? But then why am I feeling missed beats and the monitor confirms it, yet ECG and Holter were normal? I even pressed the event button on the Holter when the Omrom detected and I "felt" irregular heartbeats and documented them on the log page. Are the BP monitors worthless for detecting irregular heartbeats? Thanks.

0 likes, 1 reply