BLOOD PRESSURE ESTIMATING APPARATUS AND METHOD

• US 20170042433A1
• Filed: 01/27/2016
• Published: 02/16/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/11/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: NOH, Seungwoo, Jung, Taesung, KIM, Younho, PARK, Sangyun
• Granted Patent: US 10,045,700 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0223 of calibration, e.g. protocols for calibrating sensors
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02055 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular condition and temperature
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02108 from analysis of pulse wave characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02225 using the oscillometric method
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02416 using photoplethysmograph signals, e.g. generated by infrared radiation A61B5/14552 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1102 Ballistocardiography
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1118 Determining activity level
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14542 for measuring blood gases A61B5/14551 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14551 for measuring blood gases
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/318 Heart-related electrical modalities, e.g. electrocardiography [ECG]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7278 Artificial waveform generation or derivation, e.g. synthesising signals from measured signals A61B5/327 takes precedence

Abstract

A blood pressure estimating method includes measuring a biosignal including pulse wave information of a user, determining a calibration method for a blood pressure estimation model, calibrating the blood pressure estimation model using the determined calibration method, and estimating a blood pressure of the user from the biosignal using the calibrated blood pressure estimation model.

Claims

1. A blood pressure estimating method comprising:

measuring a biosignal comprising pulse wave information of a user;

determining a calibration method for a blood pressure estimation model;

calibrating the blood pressure estimation model using the determined calibration method; and

estimating a blood pressure of the user from the biosignal using the calibrated blood pressure estimation model.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of the calibration method comprises determining the calibration method for the blood pressure estimation model based on either one or both of a signal quality of the biosignal and an elapsed time since a previous calibration of the blood pressure estimation model was performed.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of the calibration method comprises determining the calibration method for the blood pressure estimation model based on any one or any combination of any two or more of movement information of the user, external temperature information, and body temperature information of the user.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the determined calibration method is selected from a first calibration method of calibrating the blood pressure estimation model based on a blood pressure value measured using a cuff, and a second calibration method of measuring another biosignal and calibrating the blood pressure estimation model based on the other measured biosignal.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the determining of the calibration method comprises determining that the second calibration method is to be performed between points in time at which the first calibration method is performed.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the biosignal is a photoplethysmogram (PPG) signal;

and

the other biosignal is an electrocardiogram (ECG) signal or a biosignal comprising blood oxygen saturation (SpO₂) information.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether to calibrate the blood pressure estimation model;

and

wherein the determining of the calibration method comprises determining the calibration method for the blood pressure estimation model in response to a result of the determining of whether to calibrate the blood pressure estimation model being to calibrate the blood pressure estimation model.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the determining of whether to calibrate the blood pressure estimation model comprises determining whether to calibrate the blood pressure estimation model based on either one or both of a signal quality of the biosignal and an elapsed time since a previous calibration of the blood pressure estimation model was performed.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the determining of whether to calibrate the blood pressure estimation model comprises determining whether to calibrate the blood pressure estimation model based on any one or any combination of any two or more of movement information of the user, external temperature information, and body temperature information of the user.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the measuring of the biosignal comprises:

measuring biosignals of a same type; and

selecting a reference biosignal from the biosignals based on signal qualities of the biosignals; and

the estimating of the blood pressure of the user comprises estimating the blood pressure of the user from the reference biosignal using the calibrated blood pressure estimation model.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions to cause computing hardware to perform the method of claim 1.

12. A blood pressure estimating apparatus comprising:

a first sensor configured to measure a biosignal comprising pulse wave information of a user;

a calibration controller configured to determine a calibration time at which a calibration is to be performed on a blood pressure estimation model and a calibration method for the blood pressure estimation model;

a calibrator configured to calibrate the blood pressure estimation model at the determined calibration time using the determined calibration method; and

a blood pressure estimator configured to estimate a blood pressure of the user from the biosignal using the calibrated blood pressure estimation model.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the calibration controller is further configured to determine the calibration time and the calibration method based on either one or both of a signal quality of the biosignal and an elapsed time since a previous calibration of the blood pressure estimation model was performed.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the calibration controller is further configured to:

determine the calibration time and the calibration method based on any one or any combination of any two or more of movement information of the user, external temperature information, and body temperature information of the user; and

control an operation of the first sensor.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the calibration controller is further configured to select the calibration method for the blood pressure estimation model from a first calibration method of calibrating the blood pressure estimation model based on a blood pressure value measured using a cuff, and a second calibration method of calibrating the blood pressure estimation model based on another biosignal.

16. A blood pressure estimating apparatus comprising:

a first sensor configured to sense a first biosignal of a user;

a blood pressure estimator configured to estimate a blood pressure of the user from the first biosignal using a blood pressure estimation model;

a calibrator configured to calibrate the blood pressure estimation model using a plurality of calibration methods; and

a calibration controller configured to select one of the calibration methods, and control the calibrator to calibrate the blood pressure estimation model using the selected calibration method.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, further comprising a second sensor configured to sense a second biosignal of the user;

wherein the plurality of calibration methods comprise;

a first calibration method in which the calibrator calibrates the blood pressure estimation model based on a blood pressure of the user measured using a cuff; and

a second calibration method in which the calibrator calibrates the blood pressure estimation model based on the first biosignal and the second biosignal.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the calibration controller is further configured to alternately select the first calibration method and the second calibration method.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the calibration controller is further configured to:

determine a signal quality of the first biosignal,

select the first calibration method in response to either the signal quality of the first biosignal being less than or equal to a predetermined threshold or a predetermined amount of time elapsing since a last calibration of the blood pressure estimation model was performed, and

select the second calibration method in response to the first calibration method not being selected.

20. The apparatus of claim 16, further comprising:

at least one additional first sensor configured to sense a first biosignal of the user so that the apparatus comprises a plurality of first sensors configured to sense a plurality of first biosignals of the user at a plurality of different sensing locations on the user; and

a signal selector configured determine respective signal qualities of the first biosignals, select one of the first biosignals having a highest signal quality, and output the selected first biosignal to the blood pressure estimator.