Abstract 19755: A More Accurate Automatic Cuff Blood Pressure Measurement Method

Most automatic cuff blood pressure (BP) measurement devices are based on oscillometry. These devices compute BP from the envelope of the oscillometric cuff pressure waveform using fixed-ratios. The fixed-ratio values are derived from population averages. As a result, the devices are often inaccurate in patients with stiff arteries. Our hypothesis is that oscillometry can be made more accurate in this important patient population by physical modeling of the phenomenon. We studied 126 patients (ages 38-85, 97 males) referred for diagnostic cardiac catheterization at the Taipei Veterans General Hospital under IRB approval. We obtained oscillometric cuff pressure waveforms for analysis using a commercial device (Omron VP1000 or Microlife WatchBP Office) and reference BP waveforms via an invasive catheter in the opposite brachial artery. We recorded these waveforms before and after sublingual nitroglycerin in many of the patients. We divided the data into a training set comprising 57 of the patient records and...