Pulse Wave Velocity in Continuous Blood Pressure Measurements

This paper is a part of research which is focused on the development of the convenient device for continuous non-invasive monitoring of arterial blood pressure by noninvasive and non-oscillometric way. Potentially useful parameter for continuous monitoring of blood pressure could be the pulse wave velocity between different regions of human body. It has been demonstrated that systolic blood pressure estimation from this parameter is possible with acceptable accuracy by personal calibration of the method for particular patient. However, most of previous studies are focused on utilizing such measurement on patients in critical conditions; the data of experiments with healthy subjects are quite limited. The blood pressure estimation method is based on a presumption that there is a singular relationship between the pulse wave velocity in arterial system and blood pressure. The measurement of pulse wave velocity involves the registration of two time markers, one of which is based on ECG R peak detection and another on the detection of pulse wave in peripheral arteries. As a result of current study it is shown that with the correct personal calibration it is possible to estimate beat-to-beat systolic arterial blood pressure with comparable accuracy to conventional noninvasive methods.