Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring during pregnancy with a new, small, easily concealed monitor.

Before establishing the utility of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring during pregnancy, we evaluated the accuracy of a small, easily concealed monitor. The 59 normotensive pregnant patients were between 13 and 26 gestational weeks. For each monitor reading, two trained observers independently and simultaneously recorded blood pressures using a mercury manometer connected to the monitor cuff. Seven readings in three positions (sitting upright, semirecumbent, standing) were performed on each patient. Averaged differences between the observers' and monitor readings varied from -2.2 to -0.9 mm Hg (systolic) and from -2.8 to -0.6 (fifth-phase diastolic), indicating slight but clinically unimportant overestimation by the monitor. Correlations between averaged observers' readings and the monitor ranged from 0.79 to 0.92 (systolic) and from 0.85 to 0.92 (fifth-phase diastolic). Overall, the observers agreed with the monitor within 5 mm Hg on 94% of systolic readings and 99% of fifth-phase diastolic readings. There was no statistically significant difference in accuracy with changes in body position. We conclude that this small, quiet, noninvasive device accurately determined blood pressures during pregnancy.