A novel disposable sensor for measure intra-abdominal pressure

Background: Measurement of intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) is realized with the Kron's method. However, this technique has drawbacks like an infusion of water into the bladder of the patient. Objective: The prove a new novel disposable sensor in the way to measure the IAP (DSIAP) this one addresses some limitations of the Kron method. Materials and methods: The DSIAP was tested in vitro and clinical settings. The proposed technique was compared with Kron's method through Pearson correlation and Bland-Altman analysis. For in vitro tests, 159 measurements were taken performed by simulating the IAP in the bladder. For the clinical test, 20 pairs of measurements were made in patients with routine IAP monitoring in the intensive care unit. Results: In vitro measurements showed a strong correlation between the DSIAP and the reference (r = 0.99, p-value < 2.2 × 10-16). The bias and 95% confidence intervals were 0.135 and-0.821-1.091 cmH2O, respectively. Measurements in patients with DSIAP versus Kron's method shown a very good correlation (r = 0.973, p-value < 5.46 × 10-13), while the bias and confidence intervals were 0.018 and-3.461-3.496 mmHg, respectively. Conclusions: The results suggest that the proposed DSIAP showed a profile similar to pressure transducers already in clinical use while overcoming some limitations of the former.