Relationship between blood pressure obtained from the upper arm with a cuff-type sphygmomanometer and central blood pressure measured with a catheter-tipped micromanometer

Recently, the importance of central blood pressure for cardiovascular risk stratification has been emphasized. Accordingly, the differences in peak systolic and bottom diastolic pressures between the ascending aorta and the brachial artery should be clarified. Study subjects consisted of 82 consecutive patients with suspected coronary artery disease who underwent cardiac catheterization, and in whom ascending aortic pressure waveform was obtained using a catheter-tipped micromanometer, and at the same time systolic and diastolic pressures were measured (single measurement) from the right upper arm with a cuff-type sphygmomanometer based on the oscillometric technique. No significant systematic difference (bias) was found between the peak pressure obtained in the ascending aorta and the systolic pressure from the right upper arm (133.6 ± 25.1 vs 131.8 ± 21.5 mmHg, not significant). Bland–Altman analysis showed only a small bias of +1.8 mmHg, and the limits of agreement were 25.4 mmHg and −21.8 mmHg. In contrast, the bottom pressure in the ascending aorta was significantly lower compared with the diastolic pressure from the upper arm (68.5 ± 10.7 vs 73.0 ± 12.4 mmHg, P < 0.0001). Bland–Altman analysis showed a small but significant bias of −4.5 mmHg, and the limits of agreement were 14.1 mmHg and −23.1 mmHg. The observed biases seemed to remain within practical range. However, random variation in the two measurements was rather large. This is considered to be caused by the random error in the single measurement with the cuff-type sphygmomanometer.