Blood pressure monitoring system

Abstract

A blood pressure monitoring system includes a blood pressure measurement device for measuring blood pressure using a cuff, a memory for storing an externally inputted pulse wave propagation time fluctuation threshold, a time interval detection reference point detection section for detecting a time interval detection reference point in a pulse wave on the side of aortae of a living organism, a pulse wave detection section for detecting a pulse wave on the side of peripheral blood vessels appearing with a time lag with respect to the pulse wave on the side of aortae, a pulse wave propagation time measurement section for measuring a pulse wave propagation time based on respective detected outputs from the time interval detection reference point detection section and the pulse wave detection section, an operation device for calculating a pulse wave propagation fluctuation from two measured pulse wave propagation times, a judgment device for judging whether or not the calculated pulse wave propagation time fluctuation exceeds the pulse wave propagation time fluctuation threshold read from the memory, and a control device for controlling the blood pressure measurement device based on an output of the judgment device so that the blood pressure of a subject is measured using the cuff.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION1. Field of the InventionThe invention relates to a blood pressure monitoring system in fields requiring continuous blood pressure monitoring of a patient in an operating room, an intensive care unit, a first-aid room, an extracorporeal dialysis room, and the like. More particularly, the invention is directed to a blood pressure monitoring system utilizing pulse wave propagation time.2. Related ArtTo monitor the blood pressure of a subject by continuously measuring his or her blood pressure, the following methods have heretofore been available. An oscillometric, noninvasive method is designed to measure blood pressure by wrapping a cuff to the upper part of an arm of the subject. A direct, invasive method is designed to measure blood pressure by puncturing an artery of the subject.By the way, the noninvasive blood pressure measuring method using the cuff may, in some cases, overlook a drastic change in blood pressure due to a shock when the measuring cycle...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

According to the present invention, the blood pressure of a subject can be measured by measuring a pulse wave propagation time fluctuation and consecutively judging whether or not the measured pulse wave propagation time fluctuation exceeds a pulse wave propagation time fluctuation threshold. As long as the blood pressure is measured correctly using the cuff when the

Problems solved by technology

By the way, the noninvasive blood pressure measuring method using the cuff may, in some cases, overlook a drastic change in blood pressure due to a shock when the measuring cycle in fixed time measurement is long (e.g., when the measuring cycle is set to 5 minutes or more).

If the measuring cycle is reduced to, e.g., 1 minute to overcome this problem, the blood vessel around which the cuff is wrapped is burdened, which in turn imposes the problem of causing internal hemor

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