A Comparison of Ultrasonic Doppler and Oscillometric Methods in Systemic Blood Pressure Measurement of Dogs

Abstract

The present study compared two indirect blood pressure methods at thoracic limb, pelvic limb, and coccygeal sites. For measurement of blood pressure, 48 client-owned dogs in a clinical setting were used. When comparing the results obtained by doppler and oscillometric methods, there were significant differences in blood pressure of the thoracic and pelvic limbs. The Doppler machine produced significantly higher blood pressure value than oscillometry measured at thoracic and pelvic limbs. The difference in blood pressure between the two methods was not significant when measured in the tail. Comparison of blood pressure measured at three different sites by doppler, blood pressure measured at pelvic limb was higher than at thoracic limb and tail. In case of oscillometry, there were no significant differences between the three sites. The results of this study indicate that mechanical and positional differences were existed in blood pressure measurements at the canine thoracic limb, pelvic limb and tail.