Wearable system for frequent and comfortable blood pressure monitoring from user's ear
AssigneeThe Regents of the University of Colorado, a body corporate
InventorsTam Vu, Robin Deterding, Nhat Pham, Nam Ngoc Bui
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A device is able to measure blood pressure from inside a user's ear. In the illustrated example, the device has three components: (1) a pulse sensor attached to an inflatable pipe which is placed inside the ear, (2) an air pump with a controller, and (3) blood pressure estimation modules including processors and computer executable instruction executed on the processors to execute blood pressure estimation algorithms.
Claims15
A device for measuring blood pressure from inside an ear, the device comprising:
- a medical balloon configured in size and shape to be inserted into a user's ear;
- an electronically controlled pump coupled to the medical balloon;
- a pressure sensor coupled to the medical balloon;
- a pulse sensor coupled to the medical balloon configured to capture a pulse signal from inside the ear;
- and
- an processor coupled to the pulse sensor and the pressure sensor, the processor configured to:
- estimate blood pressure from the pulse signal and diastolic pressure from the pressure sensor without reaching a systolic pressure within the ear.
A method of measuring blood pressure from inside an ear, the method comprising:
- inserting a medical balloon into a user's ear;
- inflating the balloon;
- sensing pressure using a pressure sensor coupled to the medical balloon;
- measuring a pulse signal using a pulse sensor coupled to the medical balloon;
- and
- estimate blood pressure from the pulse signal and diastolic pressure from the pressure sensor without reaching a systolic pressure within the ear, by:
- estimating blood pressure from the pulse signal by analyzing the timing of pulse signals derived from a PPG sensor and correlating these signals with pressure variations detected by the pressure sensor, and
- applying signal processing algorithms to reduce artifacts and distortions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.