Evaluation of continuous blood pressure monitoring by arterial tonometry in the aged

: We compared tonometry systolic pressure with direct systolic pressure in 12 elderly patients (9 patients with sinus rhythm and 3 patients with atrial fibrillation) and 1 young adult patient undergoing surgical procedures in order to evaluate reliability of continuous blood pressure by arterial tonometry. In elderly patients when blood pressure fluctuated, the differences between tonometry systolic pressure and direct systolic pressure were larger compared with when blood pressure was stable. In the elderly with sinus rhythm, the correlation with stable blood pressure was 0.908; while that with fluctuating blood pressure was 0.838. In atrial fibrillation group, the differences between stable blood pressure and fluctuating blood pressure were still larger. The results indicate that it is difficult to use tonometry method as a reliable tool for blood pressure monitoring in geriatric anesthesia under circumstances of fluctuating blood pressure.