A new cuffless optical sensor for blood pressure measuring with self-adaptive signal processing

A new cuffless, wireless optical blood pressure (BP) sensor is successfully developed by this study. This device employs the technique of photoplethysmograph (PPG) to read out in real time the intravascular blood volume change and then to calculate BP. The system utilizes a red-light LED with a wavelengths of 660 nm. The readout circuit includes a pre-amplifier, a band-pass filter, a programmable gain amplifier (PGA), an Arduino unit for calculation and a Bluetooth module for wireless communication. A notebook or a mobile phone is also used to display continuous BPs and conducts statistical analysis/results. The passband is from 0.3 to 3.4 Hz. The range of adjustable gain are from 60 to 80 dB. Measured PPGs of different subjects can be auto-adjusted with varied gain by a PGA with a pre-designed digital circuit. In results, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is improved for accurate estimates on BPs. 8 subjects participated in the experimental validation, in which the obtained BPs are compared with the results from a commercial blood pressure monitor by OMRON. The maximum error of experimental results is ± 6 mmHg, which is less than 8 mmHg conforming to the requirement by the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI). This study pioneers to report stable, accurate estimates on BPs by a cuffless optical hand-held device.