Ambulatory instrument for monitoring indirect beat-to-beat blood pressure in superficial temporal artery using volume-compensation method.

A portable instrument, based on a volume-compensation technique, is designed for ambulatory monitoring of indirect beat-to-beat blood pressure (BP) in the superficial temporal artery. The instrument consists of a small disc-type cuff and a portable unit carried by the subject. Several components are integrated in the cuff for applying counter-pressure to the artery, i.e. a reflectance-type photo-plethysmographic sensor for arterial volume detection, a pressure sensor for cuff pressure Pc measurement and a nozzle flapper-type- electro-pneumatic convertor for controlling Pc. The portable unit includes volume servo control circuitry and a microprocessor-based signal-processing and recording unit. This automatically performs all the necessary measurement procedures and stores into a memory IC element the processed systolic, mean and diastolic blood pressure data, together with pulse intervals on a beat-to-beat basis from the servo-controlled Pc (indirectly measured BP waveform). With this instrument, momentary changes in BP during ambulatory situations such as bicycle ergometer exercise and daily activities including motorway driving are successfully recorded. From the results of simultaneous measurement of the subject's posture changes, the effect of posture change on blood pressure, e.g. baroreceptor-cardiac reflex, is also clearly demonstrated.