Phoenix Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitor Project
Sub-project: Sphygmochron Spreadsheet, "Fixing" the ABPM cuff

Project Description

The purpose of this page is to record some efforts to "fix" the problem with the <model> ABPM cuff that I used.  

I'm trying to solve a small problem with the blood pressure monitor I wore.  The cuff is cloth, and pulls through a stainless-steel D-ring, wraps back upon itself, and attaches to itself with Velcro.  After I wear it for a few hours and it has inflated and deflated a few times, the cloth that is pulled through the D-ring slides up or down to one end or the other of the D-ring.

Germaine showed me an older cuff from a different (now out-of-business) company that's similar, but it has a rubber roller on the D-ring.  That prevents the cloth cuff from sliding up or down the ring and bunching up at the end.  I can't get a rubber roller onto the D-rings of the cuffs the University currently has (at least, not very easily or cheaply), but I could imagine a spray-on rubber coating such as the rubberized undercoating used on cars that would be almost as good, and only a few dollars...

With that thought, which occurred shortly after my first two-week trial of the ABPM, I set out to try a few things and report on the results...

Project Deliverables

I pried the handles off from a few kitchen measuring cups; the handles were stainless-steel and similar in size and shape to the D-ring on the ABPM cuff.  I asked a few people for ideas of things to try:

The things I have tried so far include:
The band-aid and waterproof tape both wrapped onto the stainless steel easily and provided a reasonable rubberized surface.  They are both thin, yet tough enough I think they'll last for a while with the cuff rubbing on them.  I chose the particular style of band-aid ("tough-strips") because other band-aids have smoother surfaces and are not likely to work as well.

The Athletic tape was slightly disappointing.  The cloth tape I remember from childhood had a rougher surface.  However, it wrapped onto the stainless-steel very well, and is thin and tough.  I think it would reasonably well, but not quite as well as the band-aid.

The "Gripping Tape for Rugs" didn't work at all.  It is a bit too thick to wrap around the small stainless-steel rod.  When I used one thickness of it, it didn't stick to the rod.  Using a wider piece, so it wrapped all the way around and onto itself, didn't help; the tape doesn't stick well enough to stay in place for more than a few seconds, and certainly wouldn't hold with the cloth cuff rubbing on it.

I have not yet tried double-sided tape, hockey tape, or roofing materials.

The Bottom Line

I do not yet have any experience with how well the materials hold up over time with the cloth cuff rubbing on them.

The band-aid and the waterproof tape, both available in any pharmacy and in most any household with kids or grandkids, are cheap, easily available, easy to put on, and provide a tacky enough surface that I think they'll solve the problem when I try them on a real ABPM cuff.  There is no concern with toxic materials coming on contact with the skin of the ABPM wearer.

The automobile undercoating may contain toxic materials.  It was messy to put on, as the nozzle on the spray can was designed to cover large flat areas under a car, not a short narrow rod


About This Page

This page is maintained by Larry A. Beaty. It was last updated on 21  December 2006.

The author(s) provide this information as a public service, and agree to place any novel and useful inventions disclosed herein into the public domain. They are not aware that this material infringes on the patent, copyright, trademark or trade secret rights of others. However, there is a possibility that such infringement may exist without their knowledge. The user assumes all responsibility for determining if this information infringes on the intellectual property rights of others before applying it to products or services.

(C)  2006 Larry A. Beaty.  Copying and distribution of this page is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.

Back to the Phoenix Home Page