Implantable accelerometer for determination of blood pressure

We present a new method to continuously monitor blood pressure using an acceleration sensor which is implanted on an artery using minimally invasive techniques, and which does not limit the mobility of a patient in everyday life. It is demonstrated by in vivo experiments that the reflected wave transit time (RWTT) can be reliably determined from arterial acceleration signals. RWTT and systolic blood pressure are shown to be strongly coupled with a correlation coefficient of 0.96, as determined from 1800 pulses with a mean deviation of the blood pressure of only 4.3%.