Bed-Based Ballistocardiography: Dataset and Ability to Track Cardiovascular Parameters

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular Physiology
• Biomedical Engineering
• Health Informatics

Background:

• Development of a sharable dataset of synchronized heart-driven signals.
• Inclusion of ballistocardiograms (BCGs), electrocardiograms (ECGs), photoplethysmograms (PPGs), and blood pressure waveforms.

Purpose of the Study:

• To create and release a comprehensive, time-aligned dataset of cardiovascular signals.
• To enable algorithm development and testing for non-invasive health assessment.

Main Methods:

• Detailed description of a custom, bed-based ballistocardiographic system.
• Acquisition of cardiopulmonary signals using a GE Datex CardioCap 5 and Finapres Finometer PRO.
• Collection of synchronized ECG, PPG, BCG, and continuous blood pressure data.

Main Results:

• Data collected from 40 participants, including individuals with heart conditions.
• Extracted BCG features correlated with systolic blood pressure (r=0.54), dP/dtmax (r=0.51), and stroke volume (r=0.54).
• Demonstrated feasibility of using BCG for tracking beat-to-beat cardiovascular changes.

Conclusions:

• A unique, publicly available database of synchronized cardiovascular signals was established.
• Bed-based ballistocardiography shows potential for monitoring systolic blood pressure and stroke volume.
• The dataset facilitates research without requiring extensive hardware development.