Measurement of Systolic Blood Pressure Using POCUS With Color Doppler Compared to with an Intraarterial Line

Area of Science:

• Critical Care Medicine
• Diagnostic Imaging
• Cardiovascular Physiology

Background:

• Accurate systolic blood pressure (SBP) measurement can be challenging with direct auscultation or automated cuffs in certain clinical settings.
• Intraarterial catheterization is a standard for precise blood pressure monitoring but is invasive.
• Alternative non-invasive methods are needed for reliable SBP assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the accuracy and clinical utility of point of care ultrasound (POCUS) with color Doppler for measuring SBP.
• To compare POCUS-derived SBP measurements against intraarterial catheter measurements.

Main Methods:

• Fifty intensive care unit patients with existing intraarterial catheters for blood pressure monitoring were enrolled.
• Systolic blood pressure (SBP) was measured using POCUS with color power Doppler (CPD) by detecting signal return in the brachial artery during cuff deflation.
• POCUS measurements were compared to simultaneous intraarterial SBP readings using statistical analysis.

Main Results:

• A high correlation was observed between intraarterial SBP and POCUS with CPD measurements (Pearsons correlation coefficient = 0.96).
• Bland-Altman analysis confirmed sufficient accuracy and clinical utility for the POCUS with CPD method.
• The POCUS technique showed minimal bias and acceptable limits of agreement.

Conclusions:

• Point of care ultrasound (POCUS) with color Doppler provides a viable alternative for SBP measurement.
• This method is particularly useful when automated oscillometric or auscultation techniques are unreliable.
• POCUS with CPD offers a potentially valuable tool for non-invasive SBP monitoring in critical care.