title: Finger beat-to-beat blood pressure responses to successive hand elevations.
abstract: We investigated finger beat-to-beat blood pressure responses to a series of successive hand elevations in 14 normal volunteers. By passive elevation of the hand by 40 cm and lowering it again after a minute, calibrated hydrostatic pressure changes were induced in the finger arteries of the subjects. Three successive procedures with a 2-min interval between them were performed. Transitions between positions were completed smoothly over a 10-s period. Non-invasive beat-to-beat mean arterial pressure (MAP) in the finger arteries was measured by applying the servo-oscillometric physiograph (University of Tartu, Estonia). A good agreement between the evoked MAP changes during all the three hand elevations (-31.2, -30.4 and -30.0 mmHg, respectively) and the calculated hydrostatic pressure change (-31.0 mmHg) was obtained. The height difference of approximately 40 cm and rate of 4-5 cm/s can be recommended for the hand elevation test, greater postural changes and higher rates may diminish agreement between the measured blood pressure response and the corresponding hydrostatic pressure change. The applied hydrostatic test may be helpful for assessing the accuracy of beat-to-beat finger blood pressure measurement.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, University of Tartu, 19 Ravila Street, 50411 Tartu, Estonia. rein.raamat@ut.ee
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Raamat
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jagomägi
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Talts
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mäger
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005385:Fingers / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000502:physiology*; D006225:Hand / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D006874:Hydrostatic Pressure; D017078:Laser-Doppler Flowmetry; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D009991:Oscillometry; D011674:Pulse; D012119:Respiration; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity