An initial step towards improving the accuracy of the oscillometric blood pressure measurement

We conceived a set of physical model-based techniques to compute blood pressure (BP) from a standard oscillometric cuff pressure measurement. First, the cuff pressure measurement is represented with a physical model. Then, the model unknowns are determined from the measurement via a parametric, non-parametric or hybrid technique. Finally, the entire BP waveform is computed from the determined model. For an initial assessment, we compared the accuracy of these techniques with the conventional fixed-ratio technique for computing systolic and diastolic pressures using cuff pressure measurements simulated with an established oscillometric model over a wide parameter range. The new techniques afforded much greater accuracy than the conventional technique. Our future efforts will focus on experimental validation.