Measurement of Arterial Blood Pressure Through Single-Site Acquisition of Photoplethysmograph Signal

Measurement of blood pressure (BP) from photoplethysmograph (PPG) signal has been investigated by several researchers in recent years. Use of PPG signal for BP measurement has advantages over conventional cuff-based sphygmomanometric methods. Signals from two different measurement instruments, such as electrocardiogram (ECG) and photoplethysmogram, are mostly used to determine BP. In this article, a novel approach for determining BP by measurement of only one signal, viz., PPG, is presented. Two specific methods have been discussed for determining mean arterial blood pressure (MABP), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP). The first method, presented in Section III, needs an initial value of BP while the second method uses a learning-based nonparametric regression technique. PPG signals from more than 150 volunteers have been used to assess the BP. Mean and standard deviation of error magnitudes in measuring DBP is 2.12 +/- 1.79 mmHg.

Automated summary

This article presents a novel approach for measuring blood pressure using PPG signal, which is more convenient and accurate than traditional methods. The study uses data from over 150 volunteers to show that the error in measuring diastolic blood pressure is relatively small.