title: The influence of the method of data analysis on the reported accuracy of automated blood pressure measuring devices.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To show that different methods of data analysis affect the grading that blood pressure measuring devices achieve according to the British Hypertension Society (BHS)-protocol.
  
  
  METHODS
  Based on the somewhat unclear description of the exact method of data analysis in the BHS-protocol four different methods can be discerned. The effect on the grading-results is calculated for these four different options.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It is shown that using these four different options the achieved grade can range for diastolic blood pressure from C (option 1) to almost A (option 4) and for systolic blood pressure from D (option 1) to B (option 4). Different researchers may well have used different methods. Option 1 is the method that should be used. Also it is stated that the systematic error and the standard deviation of differences (SDD) are measures that give more insight to describe a device's performance. Calculating the grades after correction for the systematic error shows its influence and that of the SDD on the reported accuracy of a blood pressure measuring device.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Hypertension and Vascular Pathology University Medical Centre, St. Radboud, Nijmegen, PO Box 9101, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Braam
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Thien
mesh_terms: D001331:Automation; D001795:Blood Pressure Determination / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D013223:Statistics as Topic / Q000379:methods