Continuous non-invasive blood pressure monitoring based on applanation tonometry

Abstract

The clinical demand for a device to continuous monitor blood pressure is on the increase to obtain diagnostic intensive information of the cardiovascular patients. The gold standard for continuous monitoring is invasive, direct method performed by inserting a catheter into the arteries. This article presents development of a low cost, non-invasive continuous blood pressure transducer based on applanation tonometry measured at external surface of the wrist. Preliminary testing with the blood pressure simulator has shown that the signal obtained from reported transducer visually correlated to the catheter type. Moreover applied to the healthy volunteers, continuation and consistent waveforms were also obtained.