Abstract
Regular blood pressure (BP) monitoring enables earlier detection of hypertension and reduces cardiovascular disease. Cuff-based BP measurements require equipment that is inconvenient for some individuals and deters regular home-based monitoring. Since smartphones contain sensors such as video cameras that detect arterial pulsations, they could also be used to assess cardiovascular health. Researchers have developed a variety of image processing and machine learning techniques for predicting BP via smartphone or video camera. This review highlights research behind smartphone and video camera methods for measuring BP. These methods may in future be used at home or in clinics, but must be tested over a larger range of BP and lighting conditions. The review concludes with a discussion of the advantages of the various techniques, their potential clinical applications, and future directions and challenges. Video cameras may potentially measure multiple cardiovascular metrics including and beyond BP, reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Highlights
Blood pressure (BP) measurement is necessary in determining an individual’s risk for cardiovascular disease and the need for early treatment
This is important in the Covid era, where there has been an increase in the number of virtual consultations with patients [1]
This paper provides an indepth review of BP-video camera measurement technologies, including their accuracy, image processing methodologies, and machine learning algorithms used for predicting BP
Summary
Blood pressure (BP) measurement is necessary in determining an individual’s risk for cardiovascular disease and the need for early treatment. Due to complexity in relating the PPG signal to BP, methodologies have been developed to determine BP from video PPG This includes image processing to extract blood flow, machine learning algorithms for calculating BP, and incorporation of smartphone features such as the microphone or force sensors. The theory of reflection mode PPG in video cameras is initially discussed This is followed by a description of the three categories of contact-based BP measurements (see Table 1 and Figure 1): [1] Oscillometry; [2] Analysis of pulse waveform features; [3] and Pulse transit time (PTT), calculated as the time delay between two PPG waveforms at different arterial sites. These techniques have been extended to estimate BP (systolic, diastolic, mean) via a logarithmic equation relating pressure to heart rate and pulse volume [19]
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