Effect of peripheral vasoconstriction on the beat-to-beat measurement of finger blood pressure

Two different techniques for noninvasive beat-to-beat finger arterial blood pressure monitoring (the volume clamp method and the oscillometric method) are compared in 5 healthy volunteers during local hand heating from 21/spl deg/C to 38/spl deg/C. The changes in blood pressure were similarly tracked by the two blood pressure monitors, except the episodes with intensive vasomotion. A disagreement between the devices during vasoconstriction (established by recording the thumb pulp skin blood flow with a laser Doppler instrument) is assumed to be caused mainly by the tendency of the oscillometric method to overestimate the finger mean blood pressure in condition of peripheral vasoconstriction.