Non-invasive monitoring of blood pressure using the Philips Intellivue MP50 monitor cannot replace invasive blood pressure techniques in surgery patients under general anesthesia.

The Philips Intellivue MP50 monitor provides a method for non-invasive, near-continuous blood pressure (BP) monitoring and is designed to be an alternative to direct intra-arterial BP (IABP) measurement. However, no studies have specifically compared non-invasive and invasive BP measurements using the monitor. The present retrospective study observed 515 patients undergoing surgery with general anesthesia, whose invasive (intra-radial, femoral or dorsalis pedis artery) and non-invasive (oscillometric) BP (NIBP) were monitored simultaneously using the monitor. These data were analyzed using correlations, regressions and Bland-Altman plots. The patients were placed in a supine position during surgery. The correlation data for invasive BP and NIBP measurements were: for intra-radial measurements, r=0.51 (bias and precision, 11.04±15.22 and 14.76±11.64 mmHg, respectively) for systolic BP (SBP) and r=0.27 (6.17±11.95 and 9.77±9.25 mmHg, respectively) for diastolic BP (DBP); for intra-femoral measurements: r=0.57 (14.79±14.55 and 17.15±11.68 mmHg, respectively) for SBP and r=0.45 (4.12±9.70 and 7.49±7.40 mmHg, respectively) for DBP; and for intra-dorsalis pedis measurements: r=0.33 (13.00±16.81 and 17.34±12.28 mmHg, respectively) for SBP and r=0.30 (0.17±11.27 and 8.44±7.46 mmHg, respectively) for DBP. According to this data, the NIBP measured by the Philips Intellivue MP50 monitor showed low positive correlations and poor agreement with the IABP, as calculated by Bland-Altman analysis. Therefore, the use of oscillometric BP measured by the monitor in surgery patients under general anesthesia is not generally recommended.