Comparison of the Microlife Blood Pressure Monitor With the Omron Blood Pressure Monitor for Detecting Atrial Fibrillation
Abstract
Screening for atrial fibrillation (AF) by assessing the pulse is recommended in high-risk patients. Some clinical trials demonstrated that the Microlife 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 Microlife 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 Microlife BPM. We compared the Microlife 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 Microlife 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 Microlife reading of 97% (95% CI 81.4% to 100%) and the Microlife 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 Microlife reading of 90% (95% CI 83.8% to 94.2%) and for the majority rule Microlife device of 92% (95% CI 86.2% to 95.7%; p<0.0001). The specificity of both devices is acceptable, but only the Microlife BPM has a sensitivity value that is high enough to be used for AF screening in clinical practice.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In Weisel et al., Omron HeartScan had 30% sensitivity and 97% specificity for detection of atrial fibrillation.
“In a study by Weisel J et al14 the sensitivity for detection of atrial fibrillation was low, that is, 30%, and specificity was high, that is, 97%.”
From Portable out-of-hospital electrocardiography: A review of current technologies (2018) · cites this paper as [14]
Cites
Kernan, W. N., Ovbiagele, B., Black, H. R., Bravata, D. M., Chimowitz, M. I., Ezekowitz, M. D., Fang, M. C., Fisher, M., Furie, K. L., Heck, D. V., et al. (2014) · Stroke · doi:10.1161/str.0000000000000024 · Cited by 5,170 · see citing works
Note on the Sampling Error of the Difference Between Correlated Proportions or Percentages
McNemar, Q. (1947) · Psychometrika · doi:10.1007/bf02295996 · Cited by 4,754 · see citing works
Probable Inference, the Law of Succession, and Statistical Inference
Wilson, E. B. (1927) · Journal of the American Statistical Association · doi:10.1080/01621459.1927.10502953 · Cited by 4,476 · see citing works
Guidelines for the Prevention of Stroke in Patients With Stroke or Transient Ischemic Attack
Furie, K. L., Kasner, S. E., Adams, R. J., Albers, G. W., Bush, R. L., Fagan, S. C., Halperin, J. L., Johnston, S. C., Katzan, I. L., Kernan, W. N., et al. (2010) · Stroke · doi:10.1161/str.0b013e3181f7d043 · Cited by 1,492 · see citing works
Contingency Tables Involving Small Numbers and the χ2 Test
Yates, F. (1934) · Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B (Statistical Methodology) · doi:10.2307/2983604 · Cited by 1,283 · see citing works
Bushnell, C., McCullough, L. D., Awad, I. A., Chireau, M. V., Fedder, W. N., Furie, K. L., Howard, V. J., Lichtman, J. H., Lisabeth, L. D., Piña, I. L., et al. (2014) · Stroke · doi:10.1161/01.str.0000442009.06663.48 · Cited by 941 · see citing works
Engdahl, J., Andersson, L., Mirskaya, M., & Rosenqvist, M. (2013) · Circulation · doi:10.1161/circulationaha.112.126656 · Cited by 233 · see citing works
Detection of Atrial Fibrillation Using a Modified Microlife Blood Pressure Monitor
Wiesel, J., Fitzig, L., Herschman, Y., & Messineo, F. C. (2009) · American Journal of Hypertension · doi:10.1038/ajh.2009.98 · Cited by 120 · see citing works
Self-citationKearley, K., Selwood, M., Van den Bruel, A., Thompson, M., Mant, D., Hobbs, F. R., Fitzmaurice, D., & Heneghan, C. (2014) · BMJ Open · doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2013-004565 · Cited by 106 · see citing works
Diagnostic accuracy of a home blood pressure monitor to detect atrial fibrillation
Stergiou, G. S., Karpettas, N., Protogerou, A. D., Nasothimiou, E. G., & Kyriakidis, M. (2009) · Journal of Human Hypertension · doi:10.1038/jhh.2009.5 · Cited by 96 · see citing works
Marazzi, G., Iellamo, F., Volterrani, M., Lombardo, M., Pelliccia, F., Righi, D., Grieco, F., Cacciotti, L., Iaia, L., Caminiti, G., et al. (2011) · Advances in Therapy · doi:10.1007/s12325-011-0087-0 · Cited by 69 · see citing works
Detecting and describing heterogeneity in meta-analysis
Hardy, R. J., & Thompson, S. G. (1998) · Statistics in Medicine · doi:10.1002/(sici)1097-0258(19980430)17:8
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Portable out-of-hospital electrocardiography: A review of current technologies
Bansal, A., & Joshi, R. (2018) · Journal of Arrhythmia · doi:10.1002/joa3.12035 · Cited by 174 · see citing works
Varma, N., Cygankiewicz, I., Turakhia, M. P., Heidbuchel, H., Hu, Y.-F., Chen, L. Y., Couderc, J.-P., Cronin, E. M., Estep, J. D., Grieten, L., et al. (2021) · Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology · doi:10.1161/circep.120.009204 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
How will machine learning inform the clinical care of atrial fibrillation?
Siontis, K. C., Yao, X., Pirruccello, J. P., Philippakis, A. A., & Noseworthy, P. A. (2020) · Circulation Research · doi:10.1161/circresaha.120.316401 · Cited by 61 · see citing works
Newer technologies for detection of atrial fibrillation
Zungsontiporn, N., & Link, M. S. (2018) · BMJ · doi:10.1136/bmj.k3946 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
Clark, C. E., McDonagh, S. T. J., & McManus, R. J. (2019) · Journal of Human Hypertension · doi:10.1038/s41371-018-0153-z · Cited by 49 · see citing works
- Authors
- Wiesel, J., Arbesfeld, B., & Schechter, D.
- Affiliations
- NYU Langone Health (US)
- Long Island Jewish Medical Center (US)
- New York Hospital Queens (US)
- Corresponding author
- Wiesel, Joseph
- ORCID
- Wiesel, Joseph
- Venue
- The American Journal of Cardiology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2014-10
- Volume
- 114
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 1046-1048
- ISSN
- 0002-9149 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2071400403
- Cited by
- 80
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 2
- FWCI
- 5.49
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The American Journal of Cardiology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Atrial Fibrillation Management and Outcomes
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Non-Invasive Vital Sign Monitoring
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Blood Pressure and Hypertension Studies
- Keywords
- atrial fibrillation, blood pressure monitors, Omron, pulse palpation, AF screening, sensitivity and specificity, electrocardiogram, majority rule, high-risk patients
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Atrial Fibrillation, Blood Pressure, Electrocardiography, Equipment Design, Female, Heart Rate, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Sensitivity and Specificity, Reproducibility of Results, Blood Pressure Monitors, Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
