Fluke Biomedical BP Pump 2 - Manual (Page 73)

Appendices
Questions and Answers
B
B-3
mean pressures. Further, its compliance is constant over time and is
independent of cuff wrapping technique.
The compliance of a standard cuff depends on the amount of air it contains.
This, in turn, is dependent on what the cuff is wrapped around, and how tightly
it is wrapped.
Q: Why is compliance Important?
“Why is tightly controlled compliance so important?”
A: Air in the cuff affects oscillations.
Blood pulsing through the arm surrounded by a cuff actually causes
displacement of the air in the cuff. This must be converted into a pressure
oscillation before the NIBP monitor can sense what is happening.
For a given volume displacement, the size of the pressure oscillation is
inversely proportional to the volume of air in the cuff. Thus, a cuff full of air
gives a smaller pressure oscillation than one wrapped tightly around the arm
and containing little air.
The Tester works just like the subject’s arm. It creates a precisely controlled
volume displacement. The cuff is what converts this displacement into a
pressure oscillation.
By using an internal cuff of fixed volume, the Tester is assured of always
producing the same pressure oscillation for each test.
Q. Can an External Cuff be used with the Tester?
“Can the Tester be used with an External Cuff?”
A. Connectors provided in Accessory Kit
The Tester can easily be configured to work with an External Cuff.
The available cuff options are accessible via the CUFF soft key present during
the NIBP simulations.
Note
The exceptions are neonate, which allows only the internal neonate
cuff, and wrist cuff, which allows only the external cuff.
The external cuff is included in the pneumatic circuit using the “Tee” or “Y”
connectors in the accessory kit.