Method and apparatus for detecting artifacts in a blood pressure measuring system

A blood pressure measuring system, in particular an invasive blood pressure measuring system, comprising:

• blood pressure sensing means for receiving electronic signals representative of a being's blood pressure from a blood pressure transducer;
• blood pressure calculating means for calculating the blood pressure, in particular the mean beat-to-beat blood pressure, from said electronic signals received from said blood pressure sensing means;
• alarm generating means set up to generate an alarm if said calculated blood pressure fulfills at least one predetermined alarm condition, in particular if it falls below or exceeds a predetermined limit;
• and
• artificial artifact detection means for comparing samples representative of said being's actual blood pressure with a mean value based on preceding values of the blood pressure for repeating said comparison for a predetermined number of samples and for generating an artificial artifact indicating signal if substantially all of said comparisons reveal that the samples exceed said mean value or values unless pulsation is sensed by said blood pressure transducer;
• wherein said artificial artifact indicating signal is fed to said alarm generating means causing the alarm generating means to suppress alarms as long as said artificial artifact indicating signal is in its active state.