Reported by Judith Tan in the Straits Times (Singapore) dated 14 October 2009A HOMEGROWN company (HealthStat International) has come up with a portable home device to measure blood pressure from a person's aorta.
This reading is a better indicator of the risk of heart attacks and strokes than one taken the conventional way from the arm, say several studies worldwide.
The device, called the A-Pulse CASPal, yields two readings: One is the blood pressure from the artery in the arm, and the other, the aortic blood pressure, which is measured with a sensor resting just above the artery in the wrist. The latter is usually a lower reading.
The device offers a non-invasive way of getting a reading of the blood pressure from the aorta, the main vessel which carries oxygenated blood out of the heart to the rest of the body.
Until now, it has been possible to measure blood pressure from the aorta only in a hospital or clinic setting, in an invasive procedure involving the insertion of a pressure-sensor tip catheter into a blood vessel in the patient's groin.
Singapore company HealthStat International will launch the $490 device here this week. It uses the same technology as its predecessor, the BPro, a watch-like device loaded with software to read the blood pressure from the aorta.
To set a range of standard blood pressure readings for the A-Pulse CASPal, readings were taken from 3,000 Asians aged between 15 and 90 years in countries like Singapore, Malaysia and China.
HealthStat's chairman and chief executive officer Ting Choon Meng, who is also a general practitioner, said it is frustrating to see patients who seem to be responding well to anti-hypertensive medication suddenly suffer strokes.
'Some of these drugs targeted to reduce blood pressure do not have the same desired effects in the aorta. That is why heart attacks and strokes still occur in these patients,' he said.
Agreeing, cardiologist Peter Yan said some beta blockers, the class of drugs used to manage high blood pressure, appear to have an adverse effect. This is why he usually takes aortic blood pressure readings of his patients who are at higher risk of the two conditions.
He put the technology to an independent test involving 30 patients, by taking their aortic blood pressure readings using the catheterisation method and the A-Pulse CASPal simultaneously. The readings were almost 100 per cent similar.
Dr Ting said when the portable device becomes available, patients on hypertensive drugs will be able to tell whether the drugs they are taking are helping them to control their condition or making it worse.
A public symposium will be held in conjunction with the launch of CASPal at 2.30pm on Saturday at Tiong Bahru Plaza, Golden Village Hall 1.
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