Miniature piezoelectric cardiovascular monitoring system

An apparatus comprising:

• a wearable sensor assembly including a flexible band having a polymer layer and a sensing layer both positioned for mounting the wearable sensor onto a sensing region of a subject for measuring vascular wall motion and blood flow dependent measurements over the sensing region, the wearable sensor comprising:
• (i) a piezoelectric sensor for measuring raw signal data, in real time, of vascular wall motion and blood flow dependent measurements, wherein the piezoelectric sensor comprises a piezoelectric electrode structure in the sensing layer for measuring the raw signal data in response to physical movement of the sensor region as detected by the piezoelectric sensor, and
• (ii) a secondary sensor for collecting and extracting photoplethysmograph derived blood flow data and photoplethysmograph derived waveform features;
• and
• a signal processor configured to
• receive the raw signal data from the piezoelectric sensor,
• filter the received raw signal data from the piezoelectric sensor,
• perform signal decomposition on the filtered raw signal data from the piezoelectric sensor,
• analyze the received raw signal data from the piezoelectric sensor to extract one or more waveform features from the received raw signal data, and
• analyze the photoplethysmograph derived blood flow data and the photoplethysmograph derived waveform features from the secondary sensor and compare the analyzed blood flow data and the waveform features to the extracted one or more waveform features from the piezoelectric sensor to extract indicators of circulating vascular volume and/or vascular tone to characterize and/or predict vascular health of the subject for clinical decision making.