Reconstructing the blood pressure waveform using a wearable photoplethysmograph sensor and hydrostatic pressure variations measured by accelerometers

Abstract

An important part of a routine clinical examination is the assessment of the arterial blood pressure waveform. The variations in shape of the waveform indicate the presence of disease. In this work, a method is developed for the reconstruction of arterial blood pressure waveform using the signals obtained from a noninvasive wearable photoplethysmographic Ring Sensor and hydrostatic pressure variations measured by an Arm Accelerometer Sensor. A dynamic model with the Wiener model structure is used to establish the relationship between transmural pressure and photoplethysmographic signal. Tuned nonlinear dynamic model has been shown to be capable of estimating the arterial blood pressure waveform. The algorithm has been applied to experimental blood pressure measurements in a healthy subject and shown to provide accurate waveform reconstruction. As a result, the use of a wearable photoplethysmographic Ring Sensor can be extended to provide a finger arterial blood pressure waveform.