[24-hour blood pressure monitoring. Validation of a new automatic device]

To validate a new miniaturized 24-h blood pressure measuring device, 42 monitorings were carried out in 20 patients in the following manner: simultaneously with the automatic measurement, the physician involved measured the blood pressure in the usual manner with stethoscope and sphygmomanometer. The following very close agreement was found: Systolic: mean values 148 +/- 18/147 +/- 18 mmHg (Rxy = 0.98); diastolic: mean values 78 +/- 11/80 +/- 10 mmHg (Rxy = 0.96). These small differences show that, on account of its very high sensitivity, the Accutracker II recognizes the onset of the systolic k sound earlier on, and is capable of still detecting k sounds down to the lower diastolic pressures. These data, together with the good handling of the miniaturized device reveal it to be very well suited for the monitoring of anti-hypertensive treatment, thus helping to avoid unnecessary medication.