Systems and methods for timing measurements in a non-invasive blood pressure measurement system

• US 10,307,068 B2
• Filed: 03/04/2015
• Issued: 06/04/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dragerwerk AG & Company KGaA (FPS Vermögensverwaltung GmbH)
• Original Assignee: Dragerwerk AG & Company KGaA (FPS Vermögensverwaltung GmbH)
• Inventors: Damiano, Evan
• Primary Examiner(s): Natnithithadha, Navin
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kingsley, Sarah R
• Application Number:
  US14/638,413
• Publication Number:
  US 20150272454A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,553 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02225 using the oscillometric method
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0235 Valves specially adapted therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation

Abstract

Disclosed are systems and methods for timing measurements in a non-invasive blood pressure measurement system. The systems and methods are capable of providing measurement results according to patient-specific time intervals. The disclosed systems may include a pump unit, signal acquisition circuit, user interface, clock, memory, microprocessor, power unit and communications module. The disclosed invention also contains a method for calculating an expected measurement duration. Additionally systems and methods for providing blood pressure results according to patient-specific time intervals using an expected measurement duration are discussed. Related apparatus, systems, methods and or/articles are described.

Claims

1. A non-invasive blood pressure measurement system comprising:

a pump unit comprising at least one of a pressure transducer, an air pressure source, at least one air duct, at least one deflate valve, at least one inflate valve, or an exhaust, the pump unit configured to acquire a cuff pressure signal using an inflatable cuff coupled thereto;

a signal acquisition circuit configured to generate an oscillometric signal from the cuff pressure signal; and

a microprocessor operatively coupled to the pump unit and the signal acquisition circuit;

wherein the microprocessor;

receives a patient-specific time interval for obtaining measurement results based on a desired time interval input into a user interface;

obtains an expected measurement duration based on an arithmetic average value of a plurality of previous measurement durations;

calculates a pre-start time corresponding to a difference between the desired time interval indicated by the patient-specific time interval and the expected measurement duration; and

sends a signal at the pre-start time to inflate or deflate the inflatable cuff to start a non-invasive blood pressure (NIBP) measurement using the pump unit and the signal acquisition circuit;

wherein;

the patient-specific time interval comprises a desired time difference between consecutive blood pressure measurements;

the expected measurement duration comprises an expected amount of time required to obtain the NIBP measurement; and

the inflatable cuff inflates or deflates based on the signal.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising memory configured to store the cuff pressure signal, the oscillometric signal, the patient-specific time interval, and the expected measurement duration, wherein the memory is operatively coupled to the microprocessor.

3. The system of claim 2, further comprising the microprocessor calculating the expected measurement duration based on information from the memory.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a clock configured to measure and provide a time, wherein the clock is operatively coupled to the microprocessor.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the cuff pressure signal and the oscillometric signal are obtained using a non-invasive blood pressure (NIBP) measurement method.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising the user interface capable of receiving the patient-specific time interval.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the microprocessor is configured to convert the patient-specific time interval into a unit of time corresponding to that used by a clock.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a communication module comprising an Ethernet connection, a Wireless Local Area Network connection, or a Wireless Wide Area Network connection, the communication module configured to receive and transmit wireless signals and wired signals.

9. The system of claim 2, further comprising a communication module configured to transmit information stored in the memory to a remote database and a monitoring station.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is a stationary blood pressure monitoring system.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is an ambulatory blood pressure monitoring system.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein a blood pressure measurement comprises at least one of a systolic pressure, a diastolic pressure and a mean arterial blood pressure.

13. The system of claim 1, further comprising a power unit configured to provide power to the system using at least one of a battery and a connection to a wall AC unit.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of previous measurement durations falls within a predefined acceptable range of values.

14. A patient monitoring system comprising:

a patient monitor capable of receiving and displaying physiological parameters; and

a non-invasive blood pressure measurement system comprising;

a pump unit comprising at least one of a pressure transducer, an air pressure source, at least one air duct, at least one deflate valve, at least one inflate valve, or an exhaust, the pump unit configured to acquire a cuff pressure signal using an inflatable cuff coupled thereto;

a signal acquisition circuit configured to generate an oscillometric signal from the cuff pressure signal; and

a microprocessor operatively coupled to the pump unit and the signal acquisition circuit;

wherein the microprocessor;

receives a patient-specific time interval for obtaining measurement results based on a desired time interval input into a user interface;

obtains an expected measurement duration based on an arithmetic average value of a plurality of previous measurement durations;

calculates a pre-start time corresponding to a difference between the desired time interval indicated by the patient-specific time interval and the expected measurement duration; and

sends a signal at the pre-start time to inflate or deflate the inflatable cuff to start a non-invasive blood pressure (NIBP) measurement using the pump unit and the signal acquisition circuit at the pre start time;

wherein;

the patient-specific time interval comprises a desired time difference between consecutive blood pressure measurements;

the expected measurement duration comprises an expected amount of time required to obtain the NIBP measurement; and

the inflatable cuff inflates or deflates based on the signal.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the non-invasive blood pressure measurement system further comprises memory operatively coupled to the microprocessor and configured to store the cuff pressure signal, the oscillometric signal, the patient-specific time interval, and the expected measurement duration.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the microprocessor calculates the expected measurement duration based on information from the memory.

17. The system of claim 15, further comprising a communication module comprising an Ethernet connection, a Wireless Local Area Network connection, or a Wireless Wide Area Network connection, the communication module configured to transmit information stored in the memory to a remote database and a monitoring station.

18. A system for obtaining measurements at patient-specific times in an oscillometric blood pressure monitoring system, comprising:

means for receiving a patient-specific time interval for obtaining measurement results from a user via a user interface;

means for obtaining an expected measurement duration based on an arithmetic average value of a plurality of previous measurement durations;

means for calculating a pre-start time corresponding to a difference between the desired time interval indicated by the patient-specific time interval and the expected measurement duration; and

means for sending a signal at the pre-start time to inflate or deflate an inflatable cuff to start a non-invasive blood pressure (NIBP) measurement;

wherein;

the patient-specific time interval comprises a desired time difference between consecutive blood pressure measurements;

the expected measurement duration comprises an expected amount of time required to obtain the NIBP measurement; and

the inflatable cuff inflates or deflates based on the signal.

20. A non-invasive blood pressure measurement system comprising:

a pump unit comprising at least one of a pressure transducer, an air pressure source, at least one air duct, at least one deflate valve, at least one inflate valve, or an exhaust, the pump unit configured to acquire a cuff pressure signal using an inflatable cuff coupled thereto;

a signal acquisition circuit configured to generate an oscillometric signal from the cuff pressure signal; and

a microprocessor operatively coupled to the pump unit and the signal acquisition circuit;

wherein the microprocessor;

receives a patient-specific time interval for obtaining measurement results based on a desired time interval input into a user interface;

obtains an expected measurement duration based on an arithmetic average value of a plurality of previous measurement durations;

calculates a pre-start time for sending a signal to inflate or deflate the inflatable cuff to start a non-invasive blood pressure (NIBP) measurement using the pump unit, the pre-start time being determined by subtracting the expected measurement duration from a time obtained by adding the desired time interval indicated by the patient specific time interval to a time when the cuff pressure signal is last acquired during an immediately preceding NIBP measurement using the pump unit;

sends the signal at the pre-start time to inflate or deflate the inflatable cuff to start the NIBP measurement using the pump unit and the signal acquisition circuit;

wherein;

the patient-specific time interval comprises a desired time difference between consecutive blood pressure measurements;

the expected measurement duration comprises an expected amount of time required to obtain the NIBP measurement; and

the inflatable cuff inflates or deflates based on the signal.