Evaluation of a new non-invasive semiautomatic blood pressure monitoring device.

The accuracy of a new device for indirect blood pressure measurement was evaluated by comparison with the intra-arterial pressure measurement. The device is based on the Korotkoff's method using a cuff and a microphone, but is characterized by a two-channel recorder to monitor the cuff pressure and the events picked up by the microphone. The blood pressure is determined automatically by a computer program which analyzes the microphone signal during a cuff deflation, and manually by the same criteria to confirm the result. The comparison was carried out on 29 subjects undergoing catheterization of the brachial artery for clinical examination. The difference between the direct and indirect reading ranged from -14 to +9 mmHg (-0.55 +/- 0.91, mean +/- SE) for the systolic pressure and from -5 to +14 mmHg (3.78 +/- 0.95) for the diastolic pressure. It was found advantageous that blood-pressure reading can be confirmed repeatedly on the recorded chart after the measurement.