Objective: We assessed the agreement between non-invasive (oscillatory) blood pressure (NIBP) measurements and invasive intra-arterial blood pressure (IBP) in the pediatric cardiac critical care unit.
Methods: Children with intra-arterial lines as per standard management protocol were enrolled. NIBP was measured every 4 hourly and the corresponding IBP reading was recorded.
Results: A total of 839 brachial NIBP, 834 IBP femoral (IF), and 137 IBP radial (IR) readings were noted on 45 participants. The mean difference (95% CI) for agreement between NIBP and IF was -2.3 (-27.1, 22.5) mmHg for systolic, 0.9 (-21.3, 23.1) mmHg for diastolic and 0.3 (-23.3, 23.9) mmHg for mean BP. Similar results were found between NIBP and IR and between IF and IR. The interrater agreement [Kappa (95% CI)] was fair between NIBP and IF [0.54 (0.48, 0.61)], and IF and IR [0.62 (0.48, 0.76)] but lower between NIBP and IR [0.37(0.20, 0.55)] when values were classified as hypotensive, normotensive, and hypertensive.
Conclusions: NIBP cannot replace but can supplement IBP in the pediatric cardiac critical care setting.