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An Evaluation of the Cuffless Blood Pressure Estimation Based on Pulse Transit Time Technique: a Half Year Study on Normotensive Subjects

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Cardiovascular Engineering

Abstract

In the present study, we investigated the relationship between blood pressure (BP) and pulse transit time (PTT) and evaluated the accuracy of the PTT-based cuffless BP estimation on 14 normotensive subjects. Least-squares regression was used to estimate BP in the first test and a repeatability test carried out half year later. BP in the repeatability test was also estimated using the regression coefficients in the first test. The results illustrated that in the first and repeatability tests (1) arterial BP increased and PTT decreased acutely after the exercises and (2) systolic BP was highly correlated with PTT. In the repeatability test, the estimation differences from the references were 0.0 ± 5.3 mmHg and 0.0 ± 2.9 mmHg for systolic and diastolic BPs respectively using least-squares regression. However, the estimation differences increased to 1.4 ± 10.2 mmHg and 2.1 ± 7.3 mmHg for systolic and diastolic BPs, respectively when the regression coefficients in the first test were used for prediction. In summary, reasonable BP estimations were given in the first and repeatability tests but not using the regression coefficients obtained 6 months ago for some subjects.

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Fund. The authors would like to acknowledge Golden Meditech Company Ltd, Bird International Ltd, and Bright Steps Corporation for their supports to the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Joint Research Centre for Biomedical Engineering, Department of Electronic Engineering, Rm. 404, Ho Sin Hang Eng. Bldg., The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong

    Mico Yee-Man Wong, Carmen Chung-Yan Poon & Yuan-Ting Zhang

  2. SIAT Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China

    Yuan-Ting Zhang

  3. Key Laboratory for Biomedical Informatics and Health Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China

    Yuan-Ting Zhang

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  1. Mico Yee-Man Wong
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  2. Carmen Chung-Yan Poon
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  3. Yuan-Ting Zhang
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Correspondence to Yuan-Ting Zhang.

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Wong, M.YM., Poon, C.CY. & Zhang, YT. An Evaluation of the Cuffless Blood Pressure Estimation Based on Pulse Transit Time Technique: a Half Year Study on Normotensive Subjects. Cardiovasc Eng 9, 32–38 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10558-009-9070-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10558-009-9070-7

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