How well are heart rates measured by pulse oximeters and electronic sphygmomanometers? Practice-based evidence from an observational study of acutely ill medical patients during hospital admission
Rimbi, M.; Nakitende, I.; Namujwiga, T.; Kellett, J.
Acute Medicine 18(3): 144-147
2019
ISSN/ISBN: 1747-4892 PMID: 31536051 Document Number: 17949
heart rates generated by pulse oximeters and electronic sphygmomanometers in acutely ill patients may not be the same as those recorded by ECG. heart rates recorded by an oximeter and an electronic sphygmomanometer were compared with electrocardiogram (ECG) heart rates measured on acutely ill medical patients. 1010 ECGs were performed on 217 patients while they were in the hospital. The bias between the oximeter and the ECG measured heart rate was -1.37 beats per minute (limits of agreement -22.6 to 19.9 beats per minute), and the bias between the sphygmomanometer and the ECG measured heart rate was -0.14 beats per minute (limits of agreement -22.2 to 21.9 beats per minute). Both devices failed to identify more than half the ECG recordings that awarded 3 NEWS points for heart rate. Heart rates of acutely ill patients are not reliably measured by pulse oximeter or electronic sphygmomanometers.
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