Zaria-made jugulometre: Assessing its usefulness in bedside medicine

Abstract

Background: Despite the availability of more sophisticated and invasive procedures for central venous pressure measurement, the role of estimating the height (in cm of water) of the internal jugular vein at bedside cannot be overemphasized. A handy instrument for this purpose was compared with the age-long procedure of combining two rulers. Objective: To compare the conventional means of jugular venous pressure (JVP) estimation with the use of a new instrument (Jugulometre). Materials and Methods: Forty-one (41) patients with elevated JVP in heart failure were recruited consecutively from two centers in a prospective study. JVP was estimated by conventional method. This was repeated using the jugulometre with and without light source separately. The time taken and height of JVP were noted. Data analysis was done using SPSS statistical software (version 16). Results: A total of 41 patients consisting of 21 (51.2%) males and 20 (48.8%) females with a mean age of 39.41 ΁ 13.79 years were examined. Analysis was done comparing conventional method and instrument without light (pair 1), conventional method and instrument with light (pair 2), and instrument without light and instrument with light (pair 3). There was a significant positive correlation (r = 0.830,0.830, and 0.954, respectively) in the height of JVP (P 0.174, 0.179 and 1.000). Time difference (in seconds) for measuring the JVP were found to be statistically significant (P Conclusion: The Zaria-made jugulometre is faster, less cumbersome and has comparable accuracy to the conventional way of JVP estimation by the bedside. It is therefore recommended for routine patient examination.