Great unit. Shop for best price.
First off, this package was put together solely for COSTCO, so its availability on Amazon is from enterprising resellers.<br />There seems to be some confusion among reviewers as to its functionality. Reviewers have commented on the fact that the pressure in the cuff is raised, rather than lowered after pumping the cuff up to a pressure that’s above any possible systolic pressure, as other sphygmomanometers employ. The technique of lowering the cuff pressure while listening with a stethoscope or microphone for the Korotkoff  sounds (those tapping and squishing sounds in the brachial artery) suffers from serious imprecision. Nurses have a lot of practice listening to those sounds as they lower the cuff pressure, but unfortunately they often practice an irreproducible technique, even after years of experience, and they often rush the measurement, knowing that they will only be able to get a ball park reading anyhow. To avoid those inaccuracies, a newer measurement technique has been developed in which oscillations in cuff pressure are measured and analyzed algorithmically. The amplitude of these oscillations is only a few mmHg, so they’re insensible. The problem is that the algorithms are proprietary and secret (although there is at least one that is open source). Using this measurement method, the cuff pressure trend can either be falling or rising, it only has to span the mean arterial pressure between systolic and diastolic, but a combination of Korotkoff sounds and pressure oscillations can also be incorporated in the algorithm. Microlife seems to think that they can produce less annoying pressure of the cuff by their method of raising the pressure in small increments and using oscillometric measurement; in my experience it’s not a big comfort difference, but the results are accurate.<br />So how do I like the unit? It’s great. It’s easy to use; it’s portable or can run off the included wall wart; and it can keep the last 99 measurements with time and date for two people. It can report either a single routine or take three measurements and average them (the preferred option and the one most researchers use). It can report but not analyze irregular heart beats. And it exactly matches the unit in my cardiologist’s office; he thinks it may actually be better.
Rating: 5 stars