Cuff-pressure induced PAT changes - modelling and experimental verification towards calibration of blood pressure surrogates.

Arterial Blood Pressure (ABP) is one of the most often measured vital parameters in daily clinical practice. State-of-the-Art non-invasive ABP measurement technologies have obvious limitations and are still mainly based on uncomfortable techniques by complete or partial occlusions of arteries. Additionally, embodiments are bulky, difficult to apply for the layman, or provide only intermittent measurements. We have been investigating the pulse arrival time (PAT) and pulse transit time (PTT) methodology for unobtrusive blood pressure (BP) measurements. However, BP surrogates like PAT or PTT require a calibration step, which is currently an unresolved problem. In this paper we report on our investigations using cuff-pressure induced PAT changes in order to provide insights in the BP-PAT sensitivities for subjects at rest.