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 pre ssures obtained with the Spacelabs 90207 (Spacelabs Medical Products, Dee Why, Australia) or Accutracker II (Suntech Medical Instruments, Me lbourne, 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 Accu tracker 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 overe stimated direct diastolic pressure by 7 (2, 12) mm Hg (p < 0.001). Var iability for systolic and diastolic blood pressures within subjects wa s similar with the two devices. Both received poor gradings by standar ds of the British Hypertension Society and did not meet criteria of th e Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation, with int raarterial recordings used as the reference. CONCLUSIONS: The Accutrac ker II device significantly underestimated resting direct systolic pre ssure, whereas the Spacelabs 90207 device significantly overestimated resting direct diastolic pressure in pregnant women. Although poor gra dings were achieved for both devices when intraarterial pressures were used as the reference, this is similar to comparisons of routine merc ury sphygmomanometry with intraarterial recordings and does not mean t hese devices are unsuitable for use in pregnancy.