BackgroundThe majority of monitors for non-invasive measurement of blood pressure in neonates and infants use the oscillometric method.ObjectiveTo use a simulator to investigate the overall system accuracy for three oscillometric blood pressure monitors. The tested devices are DINAMAP 8100 (Critikon), SpaceLabs M90426 (SpaceLabs Medical) and the module HP M 1008B (Hewlett-Packard).MethodsThe blood pressure values obtained by the three devices were compared with those of the invasive reference. A blood pressure simulator was used for testing the performance of the three blood pressure monitors.ResultsThe Dinamap and SpaceLabs readings are generally in good agreement with the invasive reference. In contrast, the HP M 1008B readings for the diastolic and mean arterial pressures are inaccurate (the mean errors are 21 and 15 mmHg, respectively).ConclusionThese results contradict our previously published data obtained when a different simulator (Cufflink) was used. These findings are important, because blood pressure values that are too low can result in a different therapeutic approach being applied, for newborn babies have only a small range of mean arterial pressure for the autoregulation of the cerebral blood flow.