A Novel Wearable Device for Continuous Blood Pressure Monitoring Utilizing Strain Gauge Technology.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Cardiovascular Technology
• Wearable Sensors

Background:

• Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of death globally, with hypertension affecting over a billion individuals.
• Current noninvasive blood pressure (BP) monitoring methods, such as cuffs and some wearables (photoplethysmography, bioimpedance), have limitations including discomfort, inaccuracy, and lack of continuous monitoring.
• Existing wearable BP technologies face challenges with skin tone and BMI variability (PPG) or electrode contact and reusability (BIOZ).

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel strain gauge-based wearable device for continuous, accurate, and noninvasive blood pressure (BP) measurement.
• To address the limitations of current BP monitoring technologies, including discomfort, placement errors, and susceptibility to physiological variations.
• To create a user-friendly, reusable, and energy-efficient wearable BP solution suitable for long-term daily use.

Main Methods:

• Development of a novel wearable device utilizing a strain gauge-based dual transducer system to directly quantify pressure.
• Implementation of a compensation mechanism for tissue deformation and external forces to enhance measurement accuracy.
• Validation of the device's performance using a novel leg press protocol across 10 subjects under dynamic conditions, comparing results against the Finapres device.

Main Results:

• The strain gauge-based wearable device achieved high accuracy in BP measurement, with mean absolute errors of 2.45 ± 3.99 mmHg (systolic) and 1.59 ± 2.08 mmHg (diastolic) under dynamic conditions.
• The device demonstrated enhanced robustness and reduced motion-induced noise compared to the Finapres system.
• The wearable BP device proved to be reusable, energy-efficient, and comfortable for long-term daily use, independent of skin tone.

Conclusions:

• The novel strain gauge-based wearable BP device offers a significant advancement in continuous, real-time BP monitoring.
• This technology overcomes key limitations of existing noninvasive BP systems, providing accurate and reliable measurements without electrodes and independent of user-specific factors.
• The developed device presents a promising solution for comfortable, long-term daily management and monitoring of hypertension and cardiovascular health.