The team aims for the device to first be used in hospitals, where it would connect via wire to existing hospital monitors. Eventually, the device could even replace blood pressure cuffs as well.
A multidisciplinary team of California Institute of Technology (Caltech) researchers has figured out a method to noninvasively and continually measure blood pressure anywhere on the body with next to no disruption to the patient. A device based on the new technique holds the promise to enable better vital-sign monitoring at home, in hospitals, and possibly even in remote locations where resources are limited.
The new patented technique, called resonance sonomanometry, uses sound waves to gently stimulate resonance in an artery and then uses ultrasound imaging to measure the artery’s resonance frequency, arriving at a true measurement of blood pressure. In a small clinical study, the device, which gives patients a gentle buzzing sensation on the skin, produced results akin to those obtained using the standard-of-care blood pressure cuff.
“We ended up with a device that is able to measure the absolute blood pressure—not only the systolic and diastolic numbers that we are used to getting from blood pressure cuffs—but the full waveform,” said Yaser Abu-Mostafa, PhD, a Caltech professor of electrical engineering and computer science.
The current prototype, built and tested by a spin-off company called Esperto Medical, is housed in a transducer case smaller than a deck of cards and is mounted on an armband, though the researchers say it could eventually fit within a package the size of a watch or adhesive patch.
