Continuous Non-Invasive Blood Pressure Monitoring Device

Abstract

Blood pressure is one of the most important parameters measured during surgeries and in vitally unstable patients due to its effect on other vital signs. Currently, the available and used measurement methods are limited to the oscillometric and arterial cannulation techniques, which have demonstrated great results for such purposes. However, each of those techniques has its disadvantages. The proposed design will attempt to eliminate these issues by measuring blood pressure non-invasively and continuously using an electrocardiogram sensor and two photoplethysmogram sensors. In this design, blood pressure is measured using Cattivelli's algorithm, which utilizes pulse transit time, heart rate, and coefficients that are obtained with calibration. Pulse transit time is calculated twice as the time between the R-peak in the electrocardiogram signal and the peaks of the two photoplethysmogram signals. For the development of the peak-detection and blood pressure estimation algorithms, medical signals of patients were acquired from the MIMIC database to be processed in MATLAB, where the algorithms were developed. The blood pressure estimation algorithm, calibration and optimization methods need improvements and further testing. Nevertheless, this technology has significant potential for advancing healthcare.