Effect of confounding factors on blood pressure estimation using pulse arrival time

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Physiological Measurement
• Cardiovascular Monitoring

Background:

• Accurate blood pressure estimation is crucial for cardiovascular health management.
• Non-intrusive methods are highly desirable for continuous monitoring and patient comfort.
• Existing methods using pulse arrival time (PAT) can be influenced by confounding factors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To improve the accuracy of non-intrusive blood pressure estimation.
• To investigate the impact of heart rate and arterial stiffness on PAT-based blood pressure measurements.
• To develop a more robust method for individual blood pressure monitoring.

Main Methods:

• Utilized multiple regression analysis incorporating pulse arrival time (PAT).
• Included heart rate as a confounding factor for cardiac cycle variability.
• Incorporated the duration from the maximum derivative point to the dicrotic peak (TDB) from photoplethysmography to represent arterial stiffness.

Main Results:

• Significant enhancement in blood pressure estimation accuracy for both diastolic and systolic phases.
• Validated reproducibility using previously established regression equations.
• Maintained high validity (r ≈ 0.8) despite a slight decrease in correlation between estimated and measured blood pressure.

Conclusions:

• Incorporating heart rate and arterial stiffness (TDB) alongside PAT significantly improves non-intrusive blood pressure estimation.
• The validated method demonstrates value for personalized, non-intrusive blood pressure monitoring.
• This approach holds potential for diverse clinical and wearable applications.