Article Sidebar
Published:
Aug 2, 2017Article Details
Copyright of published material remains in the Authors’ name. This allows authors to use their work for their own non-commercial purposes without seeking permission from the Publisher, subject to properly acknowledging the Journal as the original place of publication.
Authors are free to copy, print and distribute their articles, in full or in part, for teaching activities, and to deposit or include their work in their own personal or institutional database or on-line website. Authors are requested to inform the Journal/Publishers of their desire/intention to include their work in a thesis or dissertation or to republish their work in any derivative form (but not for commercial use).
Material submitted for publication in the SAJCC is accepted provided it has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. Please inform the editorial team if the main findings of your paper have been presented at a conference and published in abstract form, to avoid copyright infringement.
Main Article Content
Analysis of damping characteristics of arterial catheter blood pressure monitoring in a large intensive care unit
Abstract
Background. For many reasons, the invasive measurement of systolic and diastolic blood pressure should be accurate. Accuracy is determined, in part, by the damping characteristics of the arterial catheter blood pressure monitoring system.
Objectives. To ascertain the damping characteristics of arterial catheter blood pressure monitoring in a large tertiary intensive care unit (ICU) and to elicit any causes of under- or over-damping of the measurement systems.
Methods. A cross-sectional, observational study of arterial line measurements in a large general ICU. The coefficient of damping (CoD) was calculated from the waveform generated from a ‘fast flush’.
Results. Thirty systems (19%) were adequately damped (CoD 0.4 - 0.8), 56 (37%) were overdamped, and 68 (44%) were underdamped. We did not find that poor damping characteristics were associated with the age of the arterial catheter or the type of catheter used.
Conclusion. Most systems observed in this study were inappropriately damped, which would result in the inaccurate display of the waveform and systolic and diastolic pressures.
