Accuracy of cuff-less, continuous, and non-invasive blood pressure measurement in 24-h ABPM in children aged 5-17

Purpose Ambulatory, cuff-less blood pressure (BP) measurement devices are a promising trend to alleviate the strains of conventional, cuff-based BP determination. Cuff-less devices circumvent discomfort and nocturnal arousal reactions which can be triggered by cuff inflation from conventional, cuff-based ambulatory blood pressure measurement devices. Mitigating these discomforts is especially desirable when performing measurement in children. In this study we want to assess the clinical validity of a cuff-less BP measurement device for 24-h measurements in children and adolescents.Materials and methods We compared the simultaneously retrieved BP data of the cuff-less SOMNOtouch NIBP and the cuff-based Mobil-O-Graph in 24-h use in 90 children in the range from 5 to 17 years old.Results A total of 1218 valid measurement pairs showed a mean deviation of 0.99 mmHg (limits of agreement: 21.44/-19.46) for systolic and 3.03 mmHg (limits of agreement: 24.37/-18.31) for diastolic BP values. Patient-specific difference of means was within 15 mmHg in 97.7% (systolic BP) and 93.2% (diastolic BP) patients. 25.6% of nocturnal cuff inflations led to determinable, BP-relevant arousal reactions.Conclusions The SOMNOtouch NIBP demonstrated little measurement deviation of mean BP compared to the cuff-based technique over a broad spectrum of 24-h, ambulatory BP measurements in children and adolescents. Cuff-less blood pressure measurement relieves the issue of nocturnal arousal reactions which are shown to be frequently induced by cuff-based measurements. Driven by these promising results, we encourage ongoing efforts to create enough evidence on cuff-less BP measurement to promote it into broad clinical application. What is known about the topic? Hypertension is of increasing relevance in children and adolescents Blood pressure measurement is difficult, especially in younger individualsWhat this study adds? The study investigated the accuracy of a cuff-less blood pressure (BP) measurement device, SOMNOtouch & TRADE; NIBP, in children and adolescents for 24-h measurements, in comparison to a traditional cuff-based device. The experiment involved 90 participants aged between 5 and 17 years old, with both devices worn simultaneously for 24 h. The results indicated that the cuff-less device showed a minor average deviation in BP measurements. The mean deviation for systolic and diastolic BP values was 0.99 mmHg and 3.03 mmHg, respectively. About 25.6% of night-time cuff inflations in traditional devices led to significant arousal reactions. The study concluded that the cuff-less device had a slight measurement deviation and could alleviate issues like nocturnal arousal reactions that are common with cuff-based devices. These findings suggest the potential for broad clinical application of cuff-less BP measurement devices, especially in children and adolescents, to reduce discomfort and improve patient adherence. However, more research is needed to solidify these findings.