[Reliability of automatic oscillometric monitoring of arterial pressure. Effect of hypotension and arrhythmias].

The object of this study was to assess the reliability of automatic oscillometric monitoring of the systemic blood pressure. The trial was carried out in 4 patients in situations including hypotension and attacks of arrhythmia. The oscillometric pressure measured in the arm was compared with the pressure recorded by an intra-radial arterial catheter in the opposite arm. All patients were in the dorsal decubitus position. One hundred and ten comparative measurements were performed with values ranging from 48 to 200 mmHg for the systolic pressure, 36 to 112 mmHg for the diastolic pressure and 40 to 136 mmHg for mean arterial pressure. A satisfactory correlation was found between the two methods in 91 measurements in sinus rhythm with respect to systolic (r = 0.95, p less than 0.001), diastolic (r = 0.93, p less than 0.001) and mean arterial pressures (r = 0.95 p less than 0.001). The average duration of the measurements was 32 +/- 5 seconds. During the study, one patient developed paroxysmal atrial fibrillation during which 19 comparative measurements of the mean pressure were performed. The correlation between the two methods was not as good as that observed during sinus rhythm (r = 0.73, p less than 0.01) and the average duration of measurement increased significantly (44 +/- 14 seconds). A correlative study was also performed during hypotension. This was defined as directly recorded systolic blood pressures of less than 90 mmHg, diastolic pressures less than 60 mmHg and mean pressures of less than 70 mmHg (n = 40).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)