[An automatic non-invasive method for the measurement of systolic, diastolic and mean blood pressure].

A new automatic apparatus for the measurement of arterial pressure by a non-invasive technique was compared with direct intra-arterial measurement in 20 adult patients in a surgical intensive care unit. The apparatus works on the basis of the principle of oscillometry. Blood pressure is determined with a microprocessor by analysis of the amplitude of the oscillations produced by a cuff which is inflated then deflated automatically. Thus mean arterial pressure corresponds to the maximum amplitude. Systolic and diastolic pressures are deduced by extrapolation to zero of the amplitudes on either side of the maximum reading. Mean arterial pressure (AP) proved to be very reliable within the limits studied: 8.0 - 14.7 kPa (60 - 110 mmHg) with a difference in mean direct AP and indirect AP of 0,09 +/- 0.9 kPa SD (0.71 +/- 7 mmHg) and a coefficient of linear correlation between the two methods of r = 0.82. This non-invasive technique determined systolic arterial pressure (sAP) in a less reliable fashion than AP when compared with the invasive technique, with a tendency to flatten the extreme values. The correlation coefficient here was 0.68. Finally, diastolic arterial pressure (dAP) showed a better degree of agreement through with a difference in mean indirect AP and mean direct AP of 1.0 +/- 0.8 kPa (7.6 +/- 6.0 mmHg). These results indicate a good degree of agreement for measurements of mean arterial pressure, clinically the most important, between the two methods used. Measurements of diastolic pressure and above all of diastolic pressure seemed to be less in agreement. This difference could be due to an error in determination of the automatic apparatus tested or to the peripheral site (radial artery) of the intra-arterial catheter used, itself falsifying the humeral arterial pressure.