Agreement between noninvasive oscillometric and invasive intra-arterial blood pressure in children with ruptured brain arteriovenous malformations.

Background: Divergence between intra-arterial catheters blood pressure (ABP) and noninvasive oscillometry (NIBP) may affect the care of children with brain arteriovenous malformations (bAVMs). We described the agreement between ABP and NIBP in these children.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of patients admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit between 2017 and 2023 with bAVM rupture. Paired ABP and NIBP measurements were collected. Bland-Altman analyses were used to assess agreement. Correlation analysis was conducted between higher ABP and divergence between systolic BP (SBP) measurements. Hypertension was defined as mean arterial pressure (MAP) exceeding age-based 95th percentile.

Results: Thirty-four patients with 1901 BP pairs were observed. Bias overall was acceptable, but standard deviation (SD) was high. The best agreement of MAP was in non-hypertensive (bias 1.23 mmHg, SD 8.03 mmHg) and radial arterial catheters (bias 1.83 mmHg, SD 9.08 mmHg) subgroups. Bias for SBP was higher in hypertension (10.98 mmHg) and in infratentorial bAVMs (7.42 mmHg), suggesting poorer agreement in these subgroups. There were significant correlations between intra-arterial MAP and SBP divergence (R = +0.346, p<.001) and between intra-arterial SBP and SBP divergence (R = +0.677, p<.001), suggesting divergence widens with higher BP. Around 25 % of measurement pairs diverged to where one measurement crossed the clinical threshold for treatment, while the other did not, with ABP being more frequently higher than NIBP.

Conclusions: There is good agreement between ABP and NIBP, particularly in non-hypertensive ranges and with radial arterial catheters. Measurements, however, diverge in hypertension. Further research must define age-based thresholds, validate methods of BP measurement, and determine the effect of BP reduction on outcomes in these children.