Dinamapper

Thanks for your comment! ☺️

I’d love to make more videos along those lines, but as you’ve said, it’s very difficult to do it convincingly when you’re doing it on your own.

There is also the issue of staying anonymous while doing it, something that is non-negotiable for me. Scenarios like that are very ‘head centric’, e.g. oxygen masks, ambu bags, intubation, checking pupils, etc. so it’s very difficult to achieve.

I’ll have a think about scenarios that balance these factors, but am also open to suggestions that could work.

I’ve pretty much exhausted the dumpster of sphygs that are slightly unusual, so you may be disappointed (or relieved!) to hear this will be the last in the series.

Continuing the theme from last time, this is another ‘mercury free’ substitute for the traditional mercury sphygs of the 20th century.

This is an Accoson Greenlight 300.

As the name suggests, the mercury column is this time replaced with an array of green LEDs laid out around a dial that’s similar in shape to an aneroid gauge. Unlike the aneroid it has no moving parts, springs, etc. that can wear over time or be subject to shock. So, it has the accuracy and reduced maintenance requirements of mercury without the potential toxicity (at least that’s what the manufacturer’s blurb says).

It also has another neat feature. At the outside edges of the bottom of the dial it has a couple of clusters of LEDs. These indicate the speed of cuff deflation so the cuff can be deflated at the recommended rate of 2mmHg per second.

The sweet spot is to keep the middle LED lit, like so…

The customary demonstration video, you can judge how well I managed the deflation rate 🤔…

Thank you so much for your comment!

Today’s sphyg retains a similar form factor to a conventional mercury unit but replaces the mercury with LCD segments.

It’s an A&D UM-101 that I’ve had for at least 15 years.

It has a couple of nice features. You can either read the pressure from the column or from the numeric display at the bottom.

The ‘Mark’ button can be pressed as you deflate the cuff to mark the systolic and diastolic pressures.

Once the cuff fully deflates, it displays the patient’s pulse rate.

The only thing that let this one down was the quality of the bladder in the cuff. I think it came off the same production line as party balloons 🎈…with similar longevity.

Another neglected part of my collection getting dusted off…

An Accoson Desk Model 6 inch Aneroid.

Having such a large dial gives a decent amount of “needle throb”. 😁

And finally, the obligatory measurement.

This is getting to be a bit of a habit. 😆

Today’s deep dive into the dumpster of defunct medical devices features a mercury sphyg I’ve been after for a while, and finally took delivery of yesterday.

An Accoson ‘Hospital Model’.

Not sure of the date on this one but the lack of a tap to isolate the mercury suggests it’s pre early 90’s. The degradation of the rubber tube from the mercury reservoir suggests a while before that.

My guess is late 70’s - early 80’s.

The cuff isn’t original and has some nice orange tubing and a branded outer sleeve for the drug ‘Procoralan’ (Ivabradine), used for treating angina and heart failure.

The case is absolutely huge, certainly compared with its sister models.

Given its model name, I thought I’d film the demonstration in the form of a hospital documentary from the early 80s. I know it’s a bit controversial, but I used AI to add some dialogue in an attempt to make it less boring. (It struggled with some of the words but amazingly managed ‘sphygmomanometer’.). No AI was used on the visuals, only a ‘vintage’ colour grade.

This is an Accoson Metpak Mk. 2 which I reckon dates from around the mid 1960’s.

It came with the original rubber bladder but it had long since perished. 😕

The cuff was the first I’ve seen that isn’t secured with Velcro…

Instead it’s wrapped around the arm like a bandage with the thin end being tucked under; not easy to do on your own as you can see from my ham-fisted attempt…

Its other noteworthy feature is a scale that goes to 260 mmHg, rather than the more common 300. It makes it slightly more compact but doesn’t leave a lot of headroom for very high blood pressures.

Talking of which, here’s the usual demo video…

A demo of the dual cuff Watch BP Office.

“So, what brings you in today?”

Anyway, here it is, a Hawksley Random Zero Sphygmomanometer

The principle of it is as follows…

It isn’t the most straightforward apparatus to use at first but once you get used to the various steps in the process it isn’t too complicated. Here are the step by step instructions…

Wanna check my pressure with it?

Ok, here goes…

So, if you read the same values as me , I got a reading of 216 over 138. At first glance you might be reaching to call an ambulance with a pressure that high! But we still need to subtract the random error. So the ‘zero’ reading once the cuff had deflated was this…

36 mmHg.

216 minus 36 gives us 180 mmHg systolic. And 138 minus 36 gives 102 mmHg as the diastolic.

Rebekah from heartbeatbabes.

*** HIGH SCORE ***

It even prints a little ‘receipt’ of your results.