Accuracy of the Dinamap Portable Monitor, model 8100: a review of the evidence for accuracy.

Conventional measurement of blood pressure is fraught with many potential errors '1'. Automated blood pressure measuring devices remove observer bias and permit repeated blood pressure measurements at predetermined intervals, features which have obvious attractions in clinical practice and in hypertension and epidemiological research. However, such devices, which can be expensive, must be shown to be as accurate as the conventional technique which they are designed to replace '2'. A number of Dinamap models are available '3', the Dinamap Portable Monitor, Model 8100 (Critikon, Tampa, Flirida, USA) being one of the most popular automated devices used in clinical practice and in hypertension research, despite reports demonstrating that it is inaccurate in certain clinical circumstances. We therefore decided to review the literature on the Dinamap 8100. Ten papers '4-13' concerned specifically with the accuracy of this model were identified; they all acknowledged its inaccuracy but not all reached the same conclusions regarding the influence of such inaccuracy in practice.