A novel art of continuous noninvasive blood pressure measurement

Jürgen Fortin,Doris Flotzinger,Bernd Saugel,Christian Fellner,Dorothea E Rogge,Julian Grond,Katja Lerche

doi:10.1038/s41467-021-21271-8

Abstract

Wearable sensors to continuously measure blood pressure and derived cardiovascular variables have the potential to revolutionize patient monitoring. Current wearable methods analyzing time components (e.g., pulse transit time) still lack clinical accuracy, whereas existing technologies for direct blood pressure measurement are too bulky. Here we present an innovative art of continuous noninvasive hemodynamic monitoring (CNAP2GO). It directly measures blood pressure by using a volume control technique and could be used for small wearable sensors integrated in a finger-ring. As a software prototype, CNAP2GO showed excellent blood pressure measurement performance in comparison with invasive reference measurements in 46 patients having surgery. The resulting pulsatile blood pressure signal carries information to derive cardiac output and other hemodynamic variables. We show that CNAP2GO can self-calibrate and be miniaturized for wearable approaches. CNAP2GO potentially constitutes the breakthrough for wearable sensors for blood pressure and flow monitoring in both ambulatory and in-hospital clinical settings.

Highlights

Wearable sensors to continuously measure blood pressure and derived cardiovascular variables have the potential to revolutionize patient monitoring
We show that the blood pressure (BP) waveform can be used to estimate advanced hemodynamic variables
We have introduced the CNAP2GO method based on the art of volume control technique (VCT) which requires only slowly changing actuators and is robust against vasomotor changes

Summary

Introduction

Wearable sensors to continuously measure blood pressure and derived cardiovascular variables have the potential to revolutionize patient monitoring. We present an innovative art of continuous noninvasive hemodynamic monitoring (CNAP2GO) It directly measures blood pressure by using a volume control technique and could be used for small wearable sensors integrated in a finger-ring. Upgrading patient monitoring capabilities with wearable solutions designed for normal wards may help avoid intensive care unit overload (as seen during the COVID-19 crisis)[6]. For these clinical applications, wearable sensors have to fulfill all regulatory and clinical demands of medical-grade devices—. Wearable sensors for continuous BP monitoring still show poor measurement performance[7] and have, not been adopted into clinical practice

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Results

Conclusion