title: Evaluation of a new monitoring device for arterial blood pressure and heart rate measurement by automatic sphygmomanometry.
abstract: Measurements of arterial blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) using a new non-invasive automatic apparatus were compared with the BP and HR values obtained with an invasive technique, i.e. arterial catheter and pressure transducer. This new device consists of a self-inflating BP cuff and of a microphone which converts Korotkoff sounds into digital values. The comparison was made on 400 measurements in 10 surgical intensive-care patients during 18 hours after open heart surgery. Systolic pressure was underestimated by the new device by 13 +/- 20 mm Hg/1.7 +/- 2.6 kPa (means +/- SD) and the linear correlation coefficient between the non-invasive and the invasive technique was r = 0.70. Diastolic pressure was overestimated by 9.4 +/- 12.0 mmHg (1.2 +/- 1.5 kPa) with an r = 0.63. HR was also underestimated by 7 +/- 17 heart beats per minute (r = 0.58). We conclude that this new device is not adequate for monitoring intensive-care patients, not so much because of the differences noted between the invasive and the non-invasive measurements, but in particular because there are no alarms, no mean arterial pressure measurement and also because it gives aberrant results once out of twenty measurements.
mesh_terms: D000768:Anesthesia, General; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects; D001795:Blood Pressure Determination / Q000295:instrumentation*; D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures / Q000295:instrumentation*; D003422:Critical Care; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000175:diagnosis