Comparison of invasive and non-invasive blood pressure monitoring during clinical anaesthesia in dogs

Monitoring blood pressure during anaesthesia is widely recommended in man and animals. The accuracy of any device used to measure blood pressure is an important consideration when selecting monitoring equipment, the ANSI/AAMI SP10 standard is widely cited in this respect in recent veterinary publications. Blood pressure was monitored using invasive and non-invasive techniques during clinical anaesthesia in 19 dogs. The results were compared using Bland-Altman analysis. The bias (and limits of agreement) between invasive and non-invasive measurement was 7.1 mmHg (+/-34.7) for systolic blood pressure, -1.8 mmHg (+/-27.4) for mean blood pressure and 6.9 mmHg (+/-27.5) for diastolic blood pressure. In a clinical setting the bias between invasive and non-invasive measurement techniques was similar or smaller than laboratory reports, however the limits of agreement were considerably wider suggesting that care should be exercised when interpreting NIBP values.