Comparison of oscillometric, Doppler and invasive blood pressure measurement in anesthetized goats

Arterial blood pressure (BP) can be measured directly using an invasive intra-arterial method. This method is considered a gold standard, however it is potentially hazardous and requires expensive equipment and professional skills. Therefore, two non-invasive methods–Doppler ultrasonic sphygmomanometry and oscillometry–have been introduced in veterinary medicine. Their accuracy has so far been reliably evaluated in various animal species, however only one study included a small group of goats. Therefore, we carried out a large-scale study which aimed to evaluate agreement between the two non-invasive methods and invasive intra-arterial BP measurement in anesthetized goats at various age. The study included 122 goats of two Polish local breeds (Polish White Improved and Polish Fawn Improved): 67 adult females, 35 adult males, and 20 two-month-old female kids. Goats were anesthetized with the intravenous mixture of xylazine and ketamine. BP was measured simultaneously with the three methods in each goat with 7 measurements on average taken. The study showed that according to the criteria of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) oscillometric method yielded BP measurements sufficiently consistent with invasive intra-arterial method in anesthetized adult goats– 95% of oscillometric BP measurements were expected to differ from invasive BP measurements by at most ±20–25 mmHg. The agreement was worse in goat kids–oscillometry significantly overestimated invasive BP measurements, which resulted in highly asymmetrical 95% limits of agreement. Doppler systolic BP very poorly conformed to invasive systolic BP both in adult goats and in kids and all the ACVIM criteria were violated. Concluding, oscillometry, but not Doppler ultrasonic sphygmomanometry, may be regarded as an alternative to invasive BP measurement in large-scale scientific studies involving adult goats, however, individual oscillometric BP measurements should be treated with caution as estimated 95% limits of agreement were wide.