Clinical evaluation of long range adaptive control for mean arterial blood pressure regulation

A computerized drug delivery system has been designed for automatic regulation of mean arterial pressure (MAP) of human patients by infusion of a vasodilator (sodium nitroprusside). This control system employs a predictive control algorithm with a combination of finite-horizon and an infinite horizon optimization terms. The control algorithm operates in an adaptive mode by coupling it to a recursive, control-relevant identification algorithm for long-range predictive control. The proposed system was used to perform closed-loop regulation of MAP of two patients, in an intra-operative environment, in the cardiac unit of the University of Alberta Hospital. The MAP trajectories show that the patient´s MAP stayed within ±10 mmHg of the setpoint for more than 70% of the time even in the presence of significant natural disturbances