Prehospital and disaster medicine
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Apr 1996
Comparative StudyOut-of-hospital use of a pulse oximeter to determine systolic blood pressures.
Blood pressure (BP) in the out-of-hospital setting is one of the most important diagnostic tools used by emergency medical services (EMS) providers. Conventional methods of palpation and auscultation can be time consuming, and the measurements often are inaccurate because of the adverse working conditions encountered. Pulse oximetry waveform systolic blood pressure (POWSBP) measurement has been used successfully in emergency departments to monitor BP. The objective of this study was to compare the accuracy of field POWSBP measurements obtained by noninvasive electronic BP measurement (NIBPM), auscultation, and palpation in the out-of-hospital environment. ⋯ The use of POWSBP measurement is a fast, easy, and accurate technique with which to measure systolic BP in the field. It may have special importance for noisy environments and moving vehicles in which conventional methods of auscultation or palpation may be difficult.