Assessment of nocturnal hypertension by ambulatory blood pressure monitoring at the forearm in people with morbid obesity

Comparison of forearm and intra-arterial blood pressure measurements according to body and arm positions in obese patients

RATIONALE

Noninvasive blood pressure (BP) monitoring is very important also difficult for accurate diagnosis and monitor of obese patients.

AIMS

The study aimed to assess the agreement between forearm arm BP and intra-arterial BP values in a different body and arm positions in obese patients.

METHODS

The descriptive study was carried out on 60 intensive care patients with a body mass index above 30 kg/m2 who were monitored with invasive radial BP in the general and surgical intensive care units. BP values obtained from the upper arm and forearm with different arm and body positions were compared with intra-arterial BP results. Bland-Altman analysis and correlation coefficient were used for the accuracy of upper and forearm noninvasive BP reading in different positions.

RESULTS

The best agreement was found between the forearm systolic BP in the supine and half-sitting position with the arm down and intra-arterial BP values. Also, the best agreement in diastolic BP was found between the half-sitting and half-sitting position with the arm down and intra-arterial BP.

CONCLUSIONS

Forearm systolic BP measurement, especially in the supine and half-sitting position with the arm below the heart level position, was best agreement with intra-arterial measurement, regarded as the gold standard. For this reason, it is more appropriate to use forearm BP measurement in obese patients monitored in intensive care to obtain accurate results.

Simultaneous self‐monitoring comparison of a supine algorithm‐equipped wrist nocturnal home blood pressure monitoring device with an upper arm device

A nocturnal home blood pressure (BP) monitoring device that measures nighttime BP levels accurately with less sleep disturbance is needed for the 24‐h management of hypertension. Here we conducted the first comparison study of simultaneous self‐monitoring by both a supine position algorithm‐equipped wrist nocturnal home BP monitoring device, the HEM‐9601T (NightView; Omron Healthcare) with a similar upper arm device, the HEM‐9700T (Omron Healthcare) in 50 hypertensive patients (mean age 68.9 ± 11.3 years). Both devices were worn on the same non‐dominant arm during sleep over two nights. The patients self‐measured their nighttime BP by starting nocturnal measurement mode just before going to bed. In total, 694 paired measurements were obtained during two nights (7.2 ± 1.5 measurements per night), and the mean differences (±SD) in systolic BP between the devices was 0.2 ± 10.2 mmHg (p = .563), with good agreement. In the comparison of nighttime BP indices, the difference in average SBP at 2:00, 3:00, and 4:00 AM and the average SBP of 1‐h interval measurements was −0.5 ± 5.5 mmHg (p = .337), with good agreement. The HEM‐9601T substantially reduced sleep disturbance compared to the upper arm‐type device. The newly developed HEM‐9601T (NightView) can thus accurately measure BP during sleep without reducing the wearer's sleep quality.