Accuracy of the Oscillometric Fixed-Ratio Blood Pressure Measurement Using Different Methods of Characterization of Oscillometric Pulses

The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy of the oscillometric fixed-ratio blood pressure measurement if different methods for characterization of oscillometric pulses were used. By means of a computer-based simulator, the widely used amplitude-based and also three different integral-based methods of characterization were implemented. We examined to which extent these methods were influenced by variations in pulse pressure, the shape of the arterial pressure pulse and the shape of the artery-cuff pressure/volume relationship. Errors were calculated as differences between the simulated systolic and diastolic blood pressure values and corresponding true values measured from the pressure pulses used as input signals of the model. Simulation demonstrated that the amplitude-based and complementary integral-based characterization methods showed the smallest error ranges for estimating systolic blood pressure. For diastolic blood pressure, the smallest error range was achieved if the full integral-based method was used.