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Continuous blood-pressure monitoring apparatus

  • US 6,610,017 B2
  • Filed: 12/28/2001
  • Issued: 08/26/2003
  • Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2001
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. An apparatus for continuously monitoring a blood pressure of a living subject, comprising:

  • an inflatable cuff which is adapted to be wound around a portion of the subject;

    a blood-pressure determining means for determining a blood pressure of the subject based on a signal obtained while a pressure in the cuff is changed;

    a relationship determining means for determining a relationship between blood pressure and magnitude of pressure pulse wave, based on the blood pressure determined by the blood-pressure determining means and a magnitude of a first-artery pressure pulse wave detected from a first artery of the subject;

    a blood-pressure monitoring means for iteratively determining, according to the thus determined relationship, a monitor blood-pressure value of the subject based on a magnitude of each of a plurality of heartbeat-synchronous pulses of the first-artery pressure pulse wave detected from the first artery;

    a first pressure-pulse-wave sensor which is adapted to be worn on a portion of the subject that is distant from a chest of the subject, detects a second-artery pressure pulse wave that is produced by a second artery of said portion, and produces a pressure-pulse-wave signal representing the detected second-artery pressure pulse wave;

    a heart-sound extracting means for extracting, from the pressure-pulse-wave signal produced by the pressure-pulse-wave sensor, a heart-sound component representing heart sounds generated by a heart of the subject;

    a pulse-wave-propagation-velocity-related-information obtaining means for iteratively obtaining a piece of pulse-wave-propagation-velocity-related information which is related to a velocity at which the second-artery pressure pulse wave propagates through the second artery of the subject, based on a time of occurrence of a prescribed periodic point of a heartbeat-synchronous pulse of the heart-sound component extracted by the heart-sound extracting means and a time of occurrence of a prescribed periodic point of a corresponding heartbeat-synchronous pulse of the second-artery pressure pulse wave detected by the pressure-pulse-wave sensor;

    a propagation-velocity-related-information-change-value determining means for periodically determining, at a prescribed judgment period, a change value of the pieces of pulse-wave-propagation-velocity-related information obtained by the pulse-wave-propagation-velocity-related-information obtaining means;

    a monitor-blood-pressure-change-value determining means for periodically determining, at the judgment period, a change value of the monitor blood-pressure values determined by the blood-pressure monitoring means; and

    a relationship checking means for comparing the change value of the pieces of pulse-wave-propagation-velocity-related information, determined by the propagation-velocity-related-information-change-value determining means, and the change value of the monitor blood-pressure values, determined by the monitor-blood-pressure-change-value determining means, with each other, and thereby judging whether the relationship between blood pressure and magnitude of pressure pulse wave, determined by the relationship determining means, is appropriate.

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