Introduction: Blood pressure (BP) can be measured invasively (invasive blood pressure, IBP) or indirectly (noninvasive blood pressure, NIBP). IBP is the gold standard, but NIBP is easier to carry out in the clinical setting.

Objective: To compare performance of the oscillometric monitor Vet20 Sun Tech® with IBP measurements in anesthetized dogs, according to the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) 2007 consensus.

Methods: A prospective study was conducted comparing systolic (SBP), diastolic (DBP) and mean (MAP) blood pressure results measured with an oscillometric monitor (Vet20 SunTech® Braun, cuff over brachial artery) and an invasive method (catheter in femoral artery connected to monitor Mindray iMEC8 Vet). We included 11 dogs (6 males and 5 females), ages between 4 and 11 years, different breeds and between 4–20 kg of weight. All of them were normotensive and under general anesthesia to perform different surgical procedures. Agreement between IBP and NIBP measurements was explored using Bland-Altman analysis, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), Student t-test and fulfilment of ACVIM requirements (significance set at p<0.05).

Results: T-test revealed no significant differences for SBP, DBP nor MBP measured with Vet20Suntech® (108±17, 65±16, 75±16 mm Hg respectively) and IBP (115±25, 62±11, 76±15 mm Hg). The mean difference of paired measurements for SBP and DBP treated separately was <10 mm Hg, with a standard deviation <15 mm Hg. Spearman correlation between paired measurements for DBP was 0.9, and >0.9 for SBP and MBP. 64% of all measurements for SBP and 91% for DBP and MBP treated separately lied within 10 mm Hg of the reference method (IBP). 82% of all measurements for SBP and 100% for DBP and SBP treated separately lied within 20 mm Hg of the reference method. All measurements showed excellent agreement on Bland Altman plots and a high ICC.

Conclusions: The Vet20 SunTech® Braun monitor meets all the criteria required by ACVIM for its validation compared with IBP measurements in anesthetized, normotensive dogs, and thus can be considered reliable for blood pressure measurement in these circumstances. Further studies in conscious and in altered BP states are needed.