[Self measurement of blood pressure: automation and management problems]

In the Federal Republic of Germany, the introduction of clinical testing of devices designed for the self-measurement of blood pressure resulted in an improvement of quality of these devices during the last ten years. Further progress seems to be possible by more restrictive administrative prescriptions. Now, electronic devices have the same accuracy as stethoscope devices. They facilitate self-measurement especially in handicapped persons. Devices working by the oscillometric method do not measure blood pressure more accurately than Korotkow devices, but they are a bit less sensitive for wrong placing of the bladder. In most devices automation of the prescribed deflation rate (2 to 3 mmHg/s) was successful.