Non-invasive blood pressure estimation using phonocardiogram

This paper presents a novel approach based on pulse transit time (PTT) for the estimation of blood pressure (BP). In order to achieve this goal, a data acquisition hardware is designed for high-resolution sampling of phonocardiogram (PCG) and photoplethysmogram (PPG). These two signals can derive PTT values. Meanwhile, a force-sensing resistor (FSR) is placed under the cuff of the BP reference device to mark the moments of measurements accurately via recording instantaneous cuff pressure. For deriving the PTT-BP models, a calibration procedure including a supervised physical exercise is conducted for each individual. The proposed method is evaluated on 24 subjects. The final results prove that using PCG for PTT measurement alongside the proposed models, the BP can be estimated reliably. Since the use of PCG requires a minimal low-cost hardware, the proposed method enables ubiquitous BP estimation in portable healthcare devices.