System and method for cuffless blood pressure estimation

An apparatus for estimating a subject's arterial blood pressure comprising:

• a heartbeat detection module configured to (i) receive an electrocardiogram signal, and (ii) detect one or more QRS complexes of the electrocardiogram signal;
• a photoplethysmographic sensor module configured to trigger a light emitter, thereby generating a plurality of samples of a photoplethysmographic signal;
• a blood pressure calculation module configured to (i) receive information about the detected one or more QRS complexes and the plurality of photoplethysmographic signal samples, and (ii) calculate at least one blood pressure value based on a pulse arrival time period (PAT) between the electrocardiogram and the photoplethysmographic signal,
• wherein the photoplethysmographic sensor module is further configured to (i) receive information about the detected one or more QRS complexes, (ii) trigger, each time a QRS complex is detected, the generation of the plurality of photoplethysmographic signal samples, and (iii) determine a photoplethysmographic signal acquisition period.

A method for estimating arterial blood pressure comprising:

• receiving an electrocardiogram signal and detecting one or more QRS complexes of the electrocardiogram signal;
• generating a plurality of samples of a photoplethysmographic signal;
• and
• receiving information about the detected QRS complexes and the photoplethysmographic signal samples and calculating at least one blood pressure value based on a pulse arrival time period (PAT) between the electrocardiogram signal and the photoplethysmographic signal, wherein generating a plurality of samples of a photoplethysmographic signal comprises triggering, each time a QRS complex is detected, the generation of the plurality of samples of the photoplethysmographic signal during a determined photoplethysmographic signal acquisition period.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon program instructions that when executed by the processor cause the computing device to perform a set of functions comprising:

• receiving an electrocardiogram signal and detecting one or more QRS complexes of the electrocardiogram signal;
• generating a plurality of samples of a photoplethysmographic signal;
• and
• receiving information about the detected QRS complexes and the photoplethysmographic signal samples and calculating at least one blood pressure value based on a pulse arrival time period (PAT) between the electrocardiogram signal and the photoplethysmographic signal, wherein generating a plurality of samples of a photoplethysmographic signal comprises triggering, each time a QRS complex is detected, the generation of the plurality of samples of the photoplethysmographic signal during a determined photoplethysmographic signal acquisition period.