Development of a wearable blood pressure monitor using adaptive calibration of peripheral pulse transit time measurements

The ability to continuously monitor a patient's blood pressure long-term (for hours, days, or weeks) using a wearable device as unobtrusive as a wristwatch or piece of jewelry, could revolutionize the study, diagnosis, and treatment of hypertension, heart failure, and other cardiovascular disorders. Today's familiar blood pressure cuffs are used to diagnose and manage the hypertensive disorders which afflict 65 million Americans. But these existing devices only permit single 'snap-shot' measurements, while true arterial blood pressure fluctuates minute-by-minute, from night-to-day, etc. There is ample evidence that more intense blood pressure monitoring offers better clinical information. Moreover, the existing blood pressure devices are a chore: they are obtrusive, finicky, and uncomfortable. This thesis presents the design and development of a novel non-invasive BP monitor. The device provides beat-by-beat mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) estimates using adaptive calibration of the measured transit time of a propagating arterial pressure wave. The device employs unique wearable sensor architecture to estimate peripheral pulse transit time measurements. This architecture is comprised of two in-line photoplethysmograph sensors one in the form of a wristwatch measuring the volumetric pulsation in the ulnar artery and one in the form of a ring measuring the volumetric pulsation of the digital artery at the base of the little finger. Use of this architecture eliminates problems associated with the traditional method of estimating pulse transit time using the electrocardiogram (EKG).

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• McCombie, Devin Barnett, 1972-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• H. Harry Asada.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/45335

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/45335