[Blood pressure monitoring - Status quo and future : A contribution to the personalized medicine].

Sustainment of life demands that the heart create sufficient pressure to maintain enough flow to keep the body healthy and oxygenated. Blood pressures can be easily measured, while volume measurements required additional invasive procedures. In analogy to volumetrically determined ejection fraction, a pressure ejection fraction EF(P) may be calculated. When standardized to heart rate and body surface area, a new, effective performance metric may be defined. These metrics enable the long-term monitoring of the critically ill patient. When presented in a performance diagram, the metrics contain prognostic implications and enable a real-time evaluation of the efficacy of therapeutic measures. Until now, pressure-related prognostic statements were based on statistical averages, which by definition apply to groups. With this new analytical approach, we have the ability to provide patient-specific therapeutics in an area of medicine that requires individualized treatment. Here, we show preliminary results of applying a mathematical risk analysis to blood pressure metrics to assess therapeutic risk.