• Sascha Meyer, Julia Sander, Stefan Gräber, Sven Gottschling, and Ludwig Gortner.
• Department of Pediatric Intensive Care Medicine and Neonatology, University Hospital of Saarland, Homburg, Germany. sascha.meyer@uniklinik-saarland.de
• J Paediatr Child Health. 2010 May 1;46(5):249-54.

PurposeBlood pressure constitutes an important parameter in the assessment of the cardiovascular status in preterm infants. Invasive arterial blood pressure (IBP) is considered the 'gold-standard', but non-invasive blood pressure (NIBP) is used frequently in preterm infants. The aim of this prospective study was to compare mean IBP and mean NIBP arterial blood pressure measurements in three subsets of preterm infants (>1500 g; 1000-1500 g, and <1000 g, and >31 weeks, 28-31 weeks, and <28 weeks of gestation).MethodsProspective, simultaneous assessment of both IBP and NIBP measurements in 50 preterm neonates at 6, 12, 18, 24 h after birth in a tertiary University centre.ResultsMean gestational age was 26.7 +/- 2.2 (24-32) in group I (n= 18), 29.6 +/- 2.0 (27-34) in group II (n= 19) and 32.2 +/- 1.9(30-36) weeks in group III (n= 13), respectively; mean birth weight was 777 +/- 161 (495-995), 1251 +/- 154 (1010-1490) and 2010 +/- 332 (1590-2550) g. Mean IBP and mean NIBP increased significantly during the first 24 h of life in all three sub-groups (P < 0.01); IBP and NIBP measurements were significantly correlated, and showed good agreement, irrespective of birth weight and gestational age.ConclusionsAlthough IBP monitoring is considered the 'gold standard', NIBP values showed good agreement with those obtained invasively irrespective of gestational age and birth weight. We conclude that NIBP monitoring constitutes an important parameter in the assessment of the cardiovascular status even in extremely low birth weight infants.

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