The Agreement Between Heart Rate Measured Using Unattended Automated Blood Pressure Measurement and Other Methods of Blood Pressure Assessment

Objective: The trial was aimed to assess the agreement between resting heart rate (HR) measured using unattended automatic (uAOBPM) and office (OBPM) or 24-h ambulatory blood pressure measurement (ABPM). Design and method: A total of 110 participants were included in the study. All underwent measurements using uAOBPM, OBPM, and ABPM. Results of ABPM were analysed in 3 periods: 24h (24h-ABPM), day activity (aABPM) and night rest (nABPM). Continuous variables were presented as means with standard deviation, while categorical variables were expressed as numbers and percentages. The comparisons were conducted using the paired t-test and Bland-Altman statistics. Results: Mean age was 56.5 ± 18.3 years. Mean HR measured using uAOBPM (70.8 ± 12.5 b.p.m.) was lower than measured using OBPM (72.8 ± 12.6 b.p.m., p<0.001), higher than measured using 24h-ABPM (67.5 ± 10.2 b.p.m., p<0.001) or nABPM (62 ± 8.7 b.p.m., p<0.001). There was no difference between HR measured using uAOBPM and aABPM (70.3 ± 11.2 b.p.m., p=0.5). Bland-Altman analysis showed smallest bias when HR was measured using uAOBPM and ABPM 0.4 (95% CI:-0.8 to 1.6) b.p.m. and -2 (95% CI:- 2.8 to -1.3) b.p.m., though the range between lower and upper limits of agreement was higher when uAOBPM has been compared with aABPM and not with OBPM. The largest bias between limits of agreement was found when uAOBPM was compared with nABPM 8.8 (95% CI:7.2 to 10.4) b.p.m. Also the largest range between lower and upper limits of agreement was when agreement between uAOBPM and nABPM was assessed. The results of Bland-Altman analysis is presented using Figure 1. Conclusions: The best agreement between HR measurements was observed when uAOBPM was compared with OBPM or aABPM.