Internist BluePearl Pet Hospital St Petersburg, FL, United States
Abstract: Background – Secondary fastening methods are used off-label to secure blood pressure cuffs (BPCs) with worn hook-and-loop fasteners. However, the impact of circumferential secondary fasteners on systolic blood pressure readings is unknown.Hypothesis/Objectives – The objective of this study was to compare systolic blood pressure (SBP) measurements between BPCs with and without a secondary fastener in healthy, non-anesthetized dogs. We hypothesize that SBP measurements would not be clinically different (± 10 mmHg) when performed with BPCs secured with hook-and-loop or circumferential medical tape.Animals - Twelve healthy blood donor dogs and 16 apparently healthy staff-owned dogs.Methods - SBP measurements with and without tape on the BPC were performed using Doppler ultrasound. Each method was performed six consecutive times, with the final five values averaged for statistical analyses. Bland-Altman plots were made, and limits of agreement calculated.Results - The limits of agreement were -40.8 (95%CI -55.6—26.0) to 45.6 (95%CI 30.8-60.4), indicating that the Doppler SBP measured with tape would be expected to be between 40.8 mmHg below to 45.6 mmHg above those measured without tape 95% of the time. The mean bias estimate was 2.4mmHg (SD=22.0, 95%CI -6.1-11.0), indicating that SBP measurements with tape averaged 2.4 mmHg higher than without tape.Conclusions and clinical importance – SBP measurements with secondary fasteners on the BPCs differed by more than 10 mmHg compared to the BPCs standard hook-and-loop fasteners, and we rejected our hypothesis. BPCs with dysfunctional hook-and-loop fasteners should be replaced due to poor clinical reliability of SBP measurements.
