Ambulatory blood pressure in pregnancy: comparison of the Spacelabs 90207 and Accutracker II monitors with intraarterial recordings.

OBJECTIVE

Our purpose was to compare systolic and diastolic blood pressures obtained with the Spacelabs 90207 (Spacelabs Medical Products, Dee Why, Australia) or Accutracker II (Suntech Medical Instruments, Melbourne, Australia) ambulatory blood pressure monitoring devices with intraarterial blood pressures in pregnant women.

STUDY DESIGN

Direct (intraarterial) and resting blood pressures with the ambulatory blood pressure monitoring device were compared in 39 pregnant women (14 Accutracker II and 25 Spacelabs 90207).

RESULTS

The Accutracker II device underestimated direct systolic pressure by -9 (-13, -3) mm Hg (median, interquartile range) (p = 0.028) but gave similar diastolic pressure. The Spacelabs 90207 device gave similar systolic pressures but overestimated direct diastolic pressure by 7 (2, 12) mm Hg (p < 0.001). Variability for systolic and diastolic blood pressures within subjects was similar with the two devices. Both received poor gradings by standards of the British Hypertension Society and did not meet criteria of the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation, with intraarterial recordings used as the reference.

CONCLUSIONS

The Accutracker II device significantly underestimated resting direct systolic pressure, whereas the Spacelabs 90207 device significantly overestimated resting direct diastolic pressure in pregnant women. Although poor gradings were achieved for both devices when intraarterial pressures were used as the reference, this is similar to comparisons of routine mercury sphygmomanometry with intraarterial recordings and does not mean these devices are unsuitable for use in pregnancy.