Method and device for tonometric blood pressure measurement
First Claim
1. A method for determining an artery location on a living subject'"'"'s skin and positioning a tonometry pressure sensor on the artery location for measuring blood pressure of the living subject, the method comprising:
- determining, by a non-contact process of using an optical-sensing unit having a light source and an optical detector to scan the skin along a scan path thereon, a search region within the scan path such that an artery is predicted to lie under the search region;
further determining a height profile characterizing the scan path'"'"'s curvature by the non-contact process; and
searching for the artery location within the search region by a contact-based process of sweeping the pressure sensor along the search region, wherein the sweeping of the pressure sensor along the search region is guided by curvature information provided by the height profile.
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Abstract
A method for determining an artery location on a living subject'"'"'s skin and positioning a tonometry pressure sensor on the artery location for tonometric blood pressure measurement is provided. The method comprises a non-contact optical search followed by a contact pressure search. In the non-contact optical search, an optical-sensing unit is used to scan the skin along a scan path while maintaining a pre-determined distance between the unit and the scan path. A search region within the scan path and a height profile characterizing the scan path'"'"'s curvature are determined. The search region is determined such that an artery is predicted to lie thereunder. The artery location is then searched within the search region by the contact pressure search, in which the pressure sensor sweeps along the search region and the sweeping is guided by curvature information provided by the height profile. A device using the method is also provided.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for determining an artery location on a living subject'"'"'s skin and positioning a tonometry pressure sensor on the artery location for measuring blood pressure of the living subject, the method comprising:
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determining, by a non-contact process of using an optical-sensing unit having a light source and an optical detector to scan the skin along a scan path thereon, a search region within the scan path such that an artery is predicted to lie under the search region; further determining a height profile characterizing the scan path'"'"'s curvature by the non-contact process; and searching for the artery location within the search region by a contact-based process of sweeping the pressure sensor along the search region, wherein the sweeping of the pressure sensor along the search region is guided by curvature information provided by the height profile. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A tonometric blood-pressure monitoring device for measuring blood pressure of a living subject, comprising:
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an optical-sensing unit including a light source and an optical detector, the optical-sensing unit being arranged to perform a non-contact process of scanning the living subject'"'"'s skin along a scan path thereon to determine; (a) a search region within the scan path such that an artery is predicted to lie under the search region; and (b) a height profile characterizing the scan path'"'"'s curvature; and a tonometry pressure sensor arranged to perform a contact-based process of sweeping the pressure sensor along the search region to search for an artery location within the search region to thereby allow the pressure sensor to be positioned on the artery location for blood pressure measurement, wherein the sweeping of the pressure sensor along the search region is guided by curvature information provided by the height profile. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification