The Measurement of Continuous Finger Arterial Pressure Noninvasively in Stationary Subjects

Abstract

In 1967 the Czech physiologist Docent Dr. Jan Penaz patented a method with which it was possible to measure noninvasive finger arterial pressure as a continuous, calibrated waveform with a true zero reference (Peñáz 1969). Six years later he devoted a brief publication to this method (Peñáz 1973) and he demonstrated the device at the 10th International Conference on Medical and Biological Engineering at Dresden. At the time, we at TNO were in need of a device that would provide us with such a signal to be used as input to a pulse contour cardiac output computer (Wesseling et al. 1983 b). In 1976 we started to construct a laboratory model on the basis of the 1973 publication, as none was available commercially. We started on a small scale as we did not understand most of the details of the method. In fact, we did not believe the method would work for various physiological reasons, because there had been no follow-up in the literature, and because we were aware that similar methods had met with little success as reported in the literature at least as far back as 1880. Yet we were struck by the elegance of the Peñáz principle. By 1978 we had a preliminary working model and were encouraged enough by the initial results, and by the response and enthusiasm of a number of clinicians, to start a large-scale development and clinical research effort. This led only recently to a design (prototype 4) which we are convinced is of clinical and experimental usefulness (Wesseling et al. 1982) and commercial viability².

The device will be commercially available through Ohmeda (formerly OHIO), 355 Inverness Drive South, Englewood, CO 80112 5810, USA