Use of a radial artery compression device for noninvasive, near-continuous blood pressure monitoring in the ED

This study's goal was to test a novel device using continuous partial radial artery compression for mean arterial pressure (MAP) measurement. A prospective, nonblind, convenience-sample trial at a level I center (annual ED census 70,000) enrolled 15 adults with indwelling radial arterial catheters and accessible contralateral radial pulse. Subjects had MAPs measured simultaneously by test device (TEST assessments), oscillometric brachial artery cuff (OSC), and arterial line (ART). There was no difference between the three groups' MAP means (P = .98). R(2) values for ART/OSC and ART/TEST were 0.96 and 0.95, respectively (P <.001). TEST and OSC MAP readings were equally likely (P = 0.66) to be within 5 mm Hg of ART in both the overall set of 307 MAPs and in the subset of 120 cases in which ART MAPs were below 80 (P = .47). The TEST device performed at least as well as oscillometric assessment, offering advantages of noninvasive, near-continuous data.