Physiological measurement
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Physiological measurement · Mar 2009
Identification of the cuff transfer function increases indirect blood pressure measurement accuracy.
At present, oscillometric blood pressure meters are among the most commonly used medical devices in the world. While substantial effort has been invested in developing more reliable evaluation algorithms, the actual hardware setup-an inflatable cuff and a pressure transducer connected to it-remained basically unchanged since the mid 19th century. Our research work has concentrated on developing an experimental test set-up to determine the transfer function of cuffs. ⋯ The placement of the bladder (tight, loose, upside down, over a shirtsleeve) remarkably affects the estimated systolic and diastolic pressures. Based on the reported research work it is possible to identify an improperly applied cuff that would result in a misleading BP measurement. Distortion caused by miscuffing is rather patient specific.