VALIDATION OF A NONINVASIVE REGISTRY MONI TOR OF OUT PATIENT BLOOD-PRESSURE - THE NOVACOR DIASYS-200

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to validate the measurement prec ision of the portable automatic non invasive monitor of blood pressure -Novacor DIASYS 200. METHODS: A mercury sphigmomanometer was used as t he reference measurer. To validate the DIASYS 87 persons (45 males, 42 females-age range 17-76 years) with a systolic blood pressure between 90.225 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure of between 64-149 mmHg were selected. RESULTS: The differences between the two apparatus were: sys tolic blood pressure 6.1 +/- 12.2 mmHg (r=0.909); diastolic blood pres sure -1.9 +/- 6.8 mmHg (r=0.929) and cardiac frequency -2.0 +/- 6.3 pp m (r=0.942). In healthy subjects of under 31 years of age (n=20) the d ifferences for systolic and diastolic blood pressure and cardiac frequ ency were 0.2 +/- 8.0 mmHg; -1.3 +/- 5.8 mmHg and -0.1 +/- 8.0 ppm, re spectively. For subjects over the age of 59 years (n=29) the measureme nts were 9.2 +/- 12.0 mmHg, 2.5 +/- 6.0 mmHg, -1.5 +/- 4.4 ppm, respec tively. With the sample subdivided according to blood pressure the dif ferences found in the normotense subgroup (n=23) were: -1.7 +/- 7.8 mm Hg, -2.4 +/- 4.9 mmHg, and -2.4 +/- 7.9 ppm, respectively; in the subg roup with slightly high blood pressure (n=40) 6.4 +/- 14.0 mmHg, -2.8 +/- 6.0 mmHg and -2.3 +/- 5.1 ppm, and in the subgroup with moderate-s evere high blood pressure (n=24) 10.4 +/- 10.9 mmHg, 0.2 +/- 9.1 mmHg and -0.9 +/- 6.5 ppm, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The DIASYS fulfills t he criteria of validation and precision for the measurement of diastol ic blood pressure and cardiac frequency in all the cases. However crit eria for systolic blood pressure are only fulfilled in normotensive an d young subjects (less than 31 years of age).