MSU Technologies

Methods and Apparatus for Determining Cuff Blood Pressure

Introduction

Blood pressure cuffs are standard equipment that can be found in hospitals, clinics and stores selling medical supplies. Patients that need to closely monitor their blood pressure may also have one at home. These cuffs employ oscillometry to measure both systolic and diastolic blood pressure by inflating the cuff to a certain pressure. Because these measurements are based upon a fixed ratio and not are not patient specific, many blood pressure readings are inaccurate. For this reason, whoever administers the test uses a stethoscope to assess the accuracy of the measurement.

Description of Technology

This technology provides a method to measure a patient’s entire blood pressure waveform using a standard oscillometric cuff. Once the cuff monitor has been used, a physical model interprets the measurements, revealing the entire blood pressure waveform. The systolic and diastolic blood pressures are then computed so they can be used as a metric to determine general health.

Key Benefits

Patient Specific: The model and resulting waveform is based upon the measurements from a specific patient without relying on a generalized method for reporting blood pressure
Improved Accuracy: The computation of systolic and diastolic pressures from the model removes the possibility of human error and generalizations from a fixed ratio method, improving the accuracy of the measurement
Further Evaluation: Having modeled the entire blood pressure waveform, more information can be gathered about the patient, including cardiac output

Applications