Remote blood pressure monitoring using a pulse diagnostic system in TCM and Android-based Tablet PC

It has become popular to combine both Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Western medicine for the diagnosis and treatment of patients since such an approach can be noninvasive and allows for the individualized diagnosis and treatment. One method of diagnosis used in Chinese medicine is pulse taking, which involves the same fundamental principals measuring blood pressure by tonometry in Western medicine. The accuracy of blood pressure measurements using tonometry is lower than the accuracy achieved using an electric monometer. Therefore in this study, a multiple regression equation was developed to improve the accuracy of blood pressure measurements using a pulse diagnostic apparatus. When this equation was used, the mean difference of 3.3mmHg and standard deviation of 2.4mmHg during the contraction phase and the mean difference of 3.6mgHg and standard deviation of 2.6mmHg during the relaxation phase were calculated. This is statistically significant and satisfies the criteria of the mean difference of 5mmHg and standard deviation of 8.0mmHg stated in ANSI/AAMI SP10. In addition, we develop an Android-based telemedicine system using a Tablet PC to measure blood pressure.