Continuous non-invasive finger blood pressure monitoring in children.

We evaluated the performance of continuous non-invasive finger arterial pressure measurement using the volume-clamp technique (Finapres). This study was designed to compare finger arterial pressure with brachial blood pressure estimated by the auscultatory method in 217 children (90 boys and 127 girls) aged 4-16 years and in 38 adults (aged 18-45 years). Finger and brachial artery pressure readings were obtained consecutively from the ipsilateral side in the supine position. Finger arterial pressure waveforms were recorded in all children except 4 with small and thin fingers. There was good agreement for systolic pressure with only a slight underestimation of 1.9 mmHg and 5.1 mmHg lower for diastolic pressure. This difference most probably reflects inaccuracy of the auscultatory cuff method rather than an error in the Finapres. There was large inter-individual variability in Finapres recordings which might be due to differences in vasomotor tone, as demonstrated by systolic amplification in 5 patients with anorexia. However, Finapres showed a small within-subject variability (3.8 mmHg for systolic and 4.1 mmHg for diastolic pressure) determined in 5 patients during phenylephrine infusion, and as good reproducibility as the auscultatory method. These results suggest that finger arterial pressure measurement in children older than 6 years of age has similar accuracy as that in adults, and that this method is useful for clinical applications in children, especially for the non-invasive evaluation of autonomic control and cardiovascular reflexes involving transient and rapid blood pressure changes.