352 results about "Blood pressure monitors" patented technology

Provided is a small sized, portable monitoring device capable of determining an analyte under investigation and having a system and method for providing compliance information to a user of his management of a disease, and for easily navigating a menu structure by means of manual control(s). Further provided is the provision of feedback to the user in form of a disease management information to be easily understood by a user such as the further described COMPLIANCE WINDOW or the INDICATOR CATEGORIES. The user interface can be used in connection with a glucose diagnostic device, a coagulation diagnostic device, immunoassay diagnostic device, and other monitoring devices such as an blood pressure monitor or a pedometer.

A blood-pressure monitor, including a blood-pressure measuring device including a cuff, an information obtaining device which iteratively obtains, from a living subject, physical information which changes with change of blood pressure of the subject, a measurement starting device for starting a measurement of the blood-pressure measuring device, when a subsequent piece of information obtained by the obtaining device after the measuring device has measured a last blood pressure of the subject in a last measurement thereof has been deviated by not less than a predetermined amount from an initial piece of information obtained by the obtaining device when the measuring device measured the last blood pressure of the subject, a display device which displays a graph representing the pieces of information obtained by the obtaining device, and a control device which controls the display device to display the graph representing the initial piece of information and each one of subsequent pieces of information iteratively obtained by the obtaining device after the measuring device has measured the last blood pressure of the subject, so that the initial piece of information and the each one subsequent piece of information can be compared with each other.

The invention provides a method for measuring a blood pressure value of a user featuring the following steps: 1) generating optical, electrical, and acoustic waveforms with, respectively, optical, electrical, and acoustic sensors attached to a single substrate that contacts a user; 2) determining at least one parameter by analyzing the optical and acoustic waveforms; and 3) processing the parameter to determine the blood pressure value for the user.

The present invention provides a system for monitoring blood pressure that preferably includes: 1) a blood-pressure monitor featuring a measuring component that generates blood-pressure information and a first short-range wireless component configured to wirelessly transmit the blood-pressure information; 2) a mobile device featuring a chipset that includes i) an embedded second short-range wireless component configured to receive the blood-pressure information; and ii) a long-range wireless component configured to transmit the blood-pressure information over a wireless network; and 3) a computer system configured to receive and display the blood-pressure information.

The present invention utilizes an accelerometer (included within a wireless physiology monitoring device or as part of a separate device such as, but not limited to a smartphone, e.g., iPhone, or other mobile device) to link a patient with a separate medical data acquisition device such as a weight scale or a blood pressure monitor in order to collect and transmit a range of medical data associated with the user. The medical data acquisition device includes a vibration source for emitting a vibration at a predetermined or random frequency. When the acquisition device is activated, a vibration is transmitted from the through the patient and is detected by the accelerometer. The accelerometer then measures the particular frequency of vibration and transmits this information to a centralized monitoring unit (CMU). Based on the measured frequency, the CMU is able to know that the same patient wearing / holding the device is also the same patient using the data acquisition device. The vibration source may revolve through a number of predetermined frequencies (as determined on its own or instructed via the CMU) or simply generate a random frequency.

An antenna implantable through minimally invasive techniques, preferably comprising a coil with conductive probes is provided. The antenna is preferably superelastic nickel-titanium having an insulative coating. The antenna may conduct a signal originating from a device external to the body of the implantee, or from another implanted device connected to the antenna depending on whether the antenna is employed for sending, receiving, or transceiving signals. Signals may contain data, operational commands, and may be used to transfer power. The implantable antenna may be connected to another implanted device, such as a blood pressure monitor, or may be implanted as a stand-alone device for purposes such as stimulating tissue.

The invention provides a system for monitoring blood pressure that includes: 1) a gateway software system that receives blood pressure information collected with a blood-pressure monitor and transmitted with a wireless interface; 2) a database that receives the blood pressure information from the gateway software system and stores this information or derivatives thereof; and 3) a web services software interface that, in response to a request from a secondary software system, retrieves the blood pressure information or derivative thereof from the database.

A cuff for a blood pressure monitor has an air bag inflated / deflated as the air comes in / out. The air bag has an inner wall portion located on the inner side in the fitted state of the cuff and an outer wall portion located outer than the inner wall portion, and a side wall portion connecting side end portions of the inner and outer wall portions and folded inwards in the deflated state of the air bag to form a gusset at each side end portion of the air bag. A bonded portion is provided at a region of the air bag in its winding direction around the living body, for reducing expansion of the gusset formed by the side wall portion. Thus, occurrence of lateral displacement of the cuff is prevented, and a highly reliable blood pressure monitor of high performance can be obtained.

A blood pressure measurement apparatus includes a blood pressure monitor measuring a subject's blood pressure, a finger cuff, a pulse wave detector and a pulse rate calculator operative to continuously measure a pulse rate serving as physiological information other than blood pressure, a pulse rate storage storing the continuously measured pulse rate, and a comparator and determiner determining from a previous, continuous pulse rate stored in the pulse rate storage that a currently measured pulse rate is close to a specified level relative to a range in variation of a pulse rate unique to the subject. When the comparator and determiner determines that the currently measured pulse rate corresponds to the specified level, the blood pressure monitor is instructed to start blood pressure measurement.

In one embodiment, the present invention provides a wireless communication system for use with a blood pressure monitor system. The wireless communication system includes a portable unit that connects to a typical pressure transducer and a monitor interface unit that connects to a typical vital signs monitor. The portable unit obtains a pressure reading from the transducer by providing an excitation voltage to the transducer, then wirelessly transmitting the pressure data to the monitor interface unit. The monitor interface unit measures the excitation voltage supplied by the vital signs monitor to supply the pressure reading in a format recognizable by the vital signs monitor.

The present invention is related to a cardiovascular monitoring device including an inflatable cuff for surrounding a limb of a user, at least a first and a second electrodes, a controlling circuitry with a processor accommodated in a housing, and a display element. The controlling circuitry is configured to perform a blood pressure measurement through controlling a pressure inside the inflatable cuff, and perform an electrocardiogram measurement by using the electrodes. The processor is also configured to provide a diastolic blood pressure and a systolic blood pressure when the blood pressure measurement is performed, and to provide a heart rhythm information when the electrocardiogram measurement is performed. Further, for achieving a better and more stable contact between the electrodes and the user's skin, the present invention provides an improved structure with electrodes arranged thereon based on the conventional blood pressure monitor.

A method and system for use in measuring the endothelial dysfunction utilizing flow mediated dilation and determining arterial health of a patient. The system includes a non-invasive blood pressure monitor, an ultrasound system and a pulse oximeter monitor that all communicate with each other to perform the flow mediated dilation. Initially, the ultrasound transducer, blood pressure cuff and pulse oximeter sensor are positioned on an arm of the patient. The blood pressure cuff is inflated to occlude an artery for an occlusion period. Following the occlusion period, the ultrasound system is automatically signaled to begin determining a parameter of the artery, such as diameter, and the flow rate of blood through the artery without any operator intervention. At the same time, the pulse wave velocity PWV is calculated between the ultrasound transducer and the finger probe of the pulse oximeter following the occlusion period. Based upon the detected characteristics of the artery before and after occlusion, as well as the PWV, the system can determine the endothelial dysfunction and arterial health of the patient.

A personalized health aid device for the perinatal period of gravida or puerpera features the PC or PDA is used as its application and operation platform. It is composed of food nutrition instructing module, fetalrhythm monitor module, the cardioelectric monitor module and blood pressure monitor module for gravida and puerpera, fetal movement monitor module, fetal education module, personalized health managing module, infant monitor module, infant nutrition instruction module, relax training module for gravida and paerpera, and data storage and computer interface module.

The invention relates to a blood pressure monitor for measuring the blood pressure of a person including a blood pressure cuff. The blood pressure monitor also includes an electro-pneumatic package. The electro-pneumatic package includes a pump, a valve, a pressure sensor, and one or more accelerometers. A pneumatic mechanical coupling is configured to pneumatically and mechanically directly couple the blood pressure cuff to the electro-pneumatic package, wherein a signal from the one or more accelerometers configured to indicate an activity level of the person during a blood pressure measurement. A display is configured to display an indication of the activity level. The invention also relates to a blood pressure monitor wherein an electronics circuit is configured to receive the motion signal from the one or more accelerometers during a blood pressure measurement. The invention also relates to a method for detecting a motion artifact in a non-invasive blood pressure measurement.

The invention provides a method for measuring a blood pressure value of a user featuring the following steps: 1) generating optical, electrical, and acoustic waveforms with, respectively, optical, electrical, and acoustic sensors attached to a single substrate that contacts a user; 2) determining at least one parameter by analyzing the optical and acoustic waveforms; and 3) processing the parameter to determine the blood pressure value for the user.

A method and system for operating a non-invasive blood pressure monitor that utilizes an SpO2 plethysmograph signal to determine the initial inflation pressure for the blood pressure cuff of the NIBP monitor. A pulse sensor is placed on the patient's limb distal to the blood pressure cuff such that as the blood pressure cuff is inflated, the pulse signals from the pulse sensor will be reduced. When the blood pressure cuff reaches systolic pressure, the pulse signals from the pulse sensor will be initially attenuated and eventually eliminated, thus providing an indication that the cuff pressure has reached systolic pressure for the patient. The central processor of the NIBP monitor compares the pulse signals during cuff inflation to an average pulse signal and terminates the inflation of the blood pressure cuff upon sufficient attenuation. The use of the SpO2 plethysmograph signal to determine the initial inflation pressure reduces both the over-inflation of the blood pressure cuff and the under-inflation of the blood pressure cuff which increases the rate at which the blood pressure measurement can be made while increasing patient comfort.

A monitor for determining a patient's physiological parameter includes a calibration device that provides a calibration signal indicative of an accurate measurement of the patient's physiological parameter. The monitor also includes a processor, which receives a noninvasive signal from a noninvasive sensor positioned over a blood vessel. The processor uses the calibration signal to calibrate a relationship between the noninvasive signal and a property of the physiological parameter. The processor also determines when to recalibrate the relationship.

This embodiment of the invention consists of an apparatus or home appliance unit embodied in a hardware entity running an embedded software program connected to a server computer via a phone line or high-speed internet. At home, the apparatus communicates with an optional set of medical health monitoring devices such as but not limited to, blood pressure monitors, blood glucose meters, and pulse oximeters using wired or wireless communications methods in order to perform wellness measurement. The illustrated embodiments of the invention provide a novel user interface on the home appliance to make the system accessible to people with disabilities. The simple user interface is designed to be accessible to people who are blind or deaf or people who cannot use their hands and require an alternative interface device such as a sip & puff controller. For the hearing impaired, the interface duplicates all speech and informational sounds with text or graphic cues. For the Blind, a Rotary knob provides tactile and audio feedback as the user navigates the system options. As every clockwise or counter-clockwise rotation of the knob brings a new option into focus, the user feels the click of the knob, and hears several audio cues including an audible click, a unique musical chime and a spoken description of the selectable option. For people who cannot use their hands to rotate the knob, alternative input controller devices, (such as a sip & puff controller) are supported through wired (such as but not limited to USB) or wireless (such as but not limited to Bluetooth, Zigbee IEEE 802.15.4, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi) connections. The home unit can further monitor wellness activity of the care recipient by pegging the number of times the care recipient passes by a infra-red motion sensor. The filtering of the latter information and subsequent integration over time and comparison with historical counts per unit of time within a 24 hour period can determine the normal activity pattern for the care recipient over the previous 24 hours.

When a predetermined condition for measurement is selected from a plurality of conditions for measurement by operating one of measurement switches before measuring the blood pressure, a pressure begins to be applied to a bladder in response to the selection and the measurement of the blood pressure starts. The measured data of the blood pressure and the selected condition for measurement are linked to each other and stored in a memory. Because the measurement of the blood pressure starts upon selection of the predetermined condition by operating one of the measurement switches, one operation can serve both as switching to instruct the starting of the measurement and selecting the predetermined condition for measurement. Thus, an additional operation for inputting a condition for measurement is not necessary, and this makes it possible to prevent forgetting to input or incorrectly inputting a condition for measurement from occurring.

A blood pressure measurement unit measures the blood pressure and a CPU accordingly stores, in a blood pressure storage unit, measurement data as well as time information regarding the time at which the blood pressure is measured. The CPU calculates, as representative measurement data, the average of a plurality of measurement data stored in the blood pressure storage unit and correlated with the time information indicating a time in the range between nine weeks ago and ten weeks ago, correlates the representative measurement data with time information representing the corresponding week and stores the data with the time information in the blood pressure storage unit. At this time, the CPU deletes from the blood pressure storage unit those measurement data based on which the representative measurement data is calculated.

A blood pressure monitor associates information representing measuring time input from a clock with measured blood pressure values so as to store them in a memory. Blood pressure values measured in a morning time zone and blood pressure values measured in an evening time zone are grouped based on the time information associated with the blood pressure values so as to be stored in the memory. A data intra-group average calculating section calculates averages of the blood pressure values in the groups, and a risk calculating section calculates a risk value based on the calculated results of the data intra-group average calculating section.

The blood pressure monitor (10) comprises an artery pressing section which locally presses an artery of the extremities or fingers at an arbitrarily variable pressing force, a vibration sensor (22) detecting a vibration of the artery at the pressed point or points on a peripheral side thereof, a mounting mechanism (26) which positions the artery pressing section and the vibration sensor (22) on the artery, a blood pressure determination section which determines the maximum and minimum pressures based on various pressing force values applied by the above-mentioned artery pressing section and signals detected by the vibration sensor (22) at these various pressing force values, guides (34) which are provided on each side of the vibration sensor (22) and guide the vibration sensor (22) to the artery by being located on the both sides of the artery, and a peripheral side pressing section which presses the artery on the peripheral side from the vibration sensor (22).The blood pressure monitor (10) does not impart an unpleasant or disagreeable feeling to the subject.

A blood pressure monitor is provided with a box-shaped housing having openings formed in left and right side walls, a cuff transversely arranged in the housing and including an arm entrance and an arm exit at the opposite left and right ends corresponding to the openings. The cuff is formed with a blood flow blocking bag in a specified area. The opposite ends of the cuff is taken up by a cuff take-up drum such that the blood flow blocking bag extends along the outer circumferential surface of the inserted arm at the time of a measurement and a compressed air is supplied to the blood flow blocking bag to block the blood flow. The blood pressure monitor is further provided with at least one of a fastening force adjusting construction for adjusting a force of the cuff to evenly fasten the arm or the like of the measurer, a construction for preventing the epidermis part of the arm from getting in the cuff, a construction for suppressing the consumption of an electric power, and a construction for fixing a measuring position.

A blood pressure monitor includes a main unit casing placed on a table, a living body insert portion casing of an approximately cylindrical shape, positioned on the main unit casing in a non-use state and having a cuff arranged on its inner peripheral surface, the cuff having a hollow portion to which an upper arm of a subject is inserted, and a connection mechanism for connecting the living body insert portion casing with the main unit casing in a movable manner such that, upon application of the cuff to the subject, the living body insert portion casing can move to come closer to the subject than the main unit casing. Thus, a blood pressure monitor provided with an automatic cuff winding mechanism enabling measurement of blood pressure with high accuracy, not giving unnecessary pain to the subject, and allowing measurement with an unconstrained posture can be provided.

Measured blood pressure data is stored in a memory in association with information related to a measurement time. In response to manipulation of a manipulation portion (memory recall switch), blood pressure data associated with the measurement time within a prescribed time period (for example, 10 minutes) from the measurement time of reference blood pressure data, among the blood pressure data stored in the memory, is retrieved as specific data. Then, an average value is calculated based on the specific data, and the calculated average value is displayed as an evaluation index.

An apparatus, system and method for collecting non-invasive blood pressure readings from a patient is provided. A non-invasive blood pressure cuff is arranged to be worn about a wrist of a patient and to be operatively connected to a blood pressure monitor. Communication means are operatively connected to the blood pressure cuff the monitor and arranged to automatically communicate a parameter associated with the cuff to the monitor. The monitor is arranged to automatically adjust blood pressure algorithms based upon the parameter to enhance the accuracy of blood pressure readings.

A cuff for a blood pressure monitor includes a cuff main unit wound around a measurement site of a living body, and a handle provided on the outer peripheral surface of the cuff main unit and gripped with a hand for fitting the cuff. The cuff main unit includes a cover member in which an air bag for pressing the living body and a curled elastic member wound annularly on the outside of the air bag and radially changeable in size are contained, and a diameter increasing / decreasing mechanism for increasing / decreasing a diameter of the curled elastic member. The handle has a push-button for increasing / decreasing the diameter of the curled elastic member by switching an operation of the diameter increasing / decreasing mechanism. This can provide a cuff for a blood pressure monitor permitting easy mounting / dismounting with respect to the measurement site of the living body.

A cuff of a blood pressure monitor includes: a pressing part surrounding a first finger and pressing against the first finger by using air pressure; a cuff housing covering an outer circumference of the pressing part; and a cuff guide formed on a side surface of the cuff housing and in contact with a second finger adjacent to the first finger to guide positioning of the cuff housing. The cuff guide is formed corresponding to a shape of the second finger and maintains a desired positioning of the cuff housing, thus constraining insertion of the first finger at a predetermined angle. Accordingly, a position of an artery of the first finger inserted into the cuff with respect to a blood pressure sensing portion improves the accuracy of measuring the blood pressure.

The invention features methods and devices for controlling bleeding from blood vessels that may be damaged as a result of trauma or impact with an object, such as a bullet or shrapnel. The device may be wearable by a user and include one or more components, such as wound sealant and multiple inflatable balloons / bladders. The device may be integrated into a garment, e.g., a vest, jacket, trousers, or full body suit. Once triggered (automatically or manually), the device may be used to deliver wound sealant to a wound site and / or pressure to the wound site by selective inflation of one or more balloons over exsanguinating blood vessels that may be damaged, thereby stopping or minimizing the bleeding. Alternatively, or in addition, the device may be used to stabilize a wounded wearer for, e.g., transportation purposes, or to provide buoyancy. Devices of the invention may also be used as a blood pressure monitor, as a massaging device, and as a breast pump. Devices and methods of the invention may also be used for repairing or stabilizing machines, such as vehicles (e.g., automobiles and boats).