Health and Technology

, Volume 6, Issue 3, pp 197–204 | Cite as

Central blood pressure monitoring method oriented to wearable devices

  • Germán Fierro
  • Fernando Silveira
  • Ricardo Armentano
Original Paper
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:
Part of the following topical collections:
  1. Health and Technology in Latin America

Abstract

Arterial hypertension affects a quarter of the world’s population and is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Blood pressure (BP) is one of the most relevant parameters used for continual monitoring of possible hypertension states in the elderly population. Furthermore, emerging evidence suggests that central blood pressure is a more accurate predictor of future cardiovascular events than brachial pressure, thus potentially providing a better hemodynamic determinant for clinical outcomes. This work presents a non-invasive Central (Aortic) blood pressure estimation method based on the pulse transit time (ptt) principle estimated from electrocardiogram (ECG) and ballistocardiogram (BCG) recordings. As the measured transit time presented takes place mainly within the aortic domain, we estimate aortic blood pressure instead of brachial pressure. Validation of the proposed method was performed with a small sample of healthy volunteers at a local gym. An Atcor Medical SphygmoCor device was used to monitor central and brachial blood pressure (systolic, mean, and diastolic) during rests of the strength maneuvers. Pulse transit time was estimated from ECG and BCG recordings and simultaneously recorded with all BP readings. Results showed that Systolic and Mean central blood pressures were most strongly correlated with ppt-estimated blood pressure in comparison to all other blood pressure readings; Bland-Altman plots showed an almost zero mean error (|μ|< 0.02mmHg) and bounded standard deviation σ< 5mmHg for all systolic and mean central BP readings. Experimental data, thus showed promissory results for monitoring aortic blood pressure via ptt. The scope of this pilot work is to provide initial validation of this method in order to develop a compact miniaturized device that allows the integration of wireless blood pressure monitoring into a wearable system.

Keywords

Blood pressure monitoring Central blood pressure Pulse transit time (ptt) Electrocardiogram (ECG) Ballistocardiogram (BCG) Wearable system 
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Notes

Compliance with Ethical Standards

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Conflict of interests

Author G. Fierro has received research grants from Comisión Académica de Posgrado - Universidad de la República. Author F. Silveira declares that he has no conflict of interest. Author R. Armentano declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Funding

This study was funded by Comisión Académica de Posgrado - Universidad de la República and Comisión Coordinadora del Interior - Universidad de la República.

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Copyright information

© IUPESM and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Departamento de Ingeniería BiológicaCENUR Litoral Norte Universidad de la República, EEMACPaysandúUruguay
  2. 2.Instituto de Ingeniería EléctricaFacultad de Ingeniería Universidad de la RepúblicaMontevideoUruguay

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