Measurement of Arterial Blood Pressure Through Single-Site Acquisition of Photoplethysmograph Signal

Abstract

Measurement of blood pressure (BP) from photoplethysmograph (PPG) signal has been investigated by several researchers in recent years. Use of PPG signal for BP measurement has advantages over conventional cuff-based sphygmomanometric methods. Signals from two different measurement instruments, such as electrocardiogram (ECG) and photoplethysmogram, are mostly used to determine BP. In this article, a novel approach for determining BP by measurement of only one signal, viz., PPG, is presented. Two specific methods have been discussed for determining mean arterial blood pressure (MABP), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP). The first method, presented in <xref ref-type="sec" rid="sec3" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Section III</xref> , needs an initial value of BP while the second method uses a learning-based nonparametric regression technique. PPG signals from more than 150 volunteers have been used to assess the BP. Mean and standard deviation of error magnitudes in measuring DBP is 2.12 ± 1.79 mmHg.