Automatic sphygmomanometer
AssigneeTerumo Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorTakahiro Souma
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A small and power-saving automatic sphygmomanometer constructed of minimum of parts. This automatic sphygmomanometer which inflates a pressure cuff to a value higher than that of one's maximum blood pressure and measures the blood pressure in the process of deflation is comprised of a cuff, air pump connected to the cuff, constant-rate pressure reducing valve for automatically adjusting a cuff pressure reducing velocity to be constant regardless of cuff pressure, exhaust valve for exhausting the air from the cuff, and controller for controlling open/close of the exhaust valve.
Claims18
An automatic sphygmomanometer which inflates a cuff to a cuff pressure higher than an individual's maximum blood pressure and measures a blood pressure in a deflating process, comprising:
- a pressure cuff for being placed on a portion of an individual's body;
- air pressurization means connected to said pressure cuff to pressurize the cuff by pumping air into the cuff;
- a pressure reducing valve connected to the cuff, said pressure reducing valve having an inlet side connected to the pressure cuff and an exhaustion side;
- an openable and closable exhaust valve connected to the exhaustion side of said pressure reducing valve to intermittently exhaust air delivered from the pressure reducing valve, the pressure reducing valve automatically adjusting a cuff pressure reducing exhaust rate to a substantially constant rate regardless of the cuff pressure when the exhaust valve is opened;
- control means for controlling opening and closing of the exhaust valve;
- and
- measuring means connected to the pressure cuff for measuring the individual's blood pressure.
An automatic sphygmomanometer which inflates a cuff to a cuff pressure higher than an individual's maximum blood pressure and measures a blood pressure by detecting Korotkoff sounds in a deflating process, comprising:
- a pressure cuff for placement on a portion of an individual's body;
- air pressurization means connected to the pressure cuff for inflating the pressure cuff, said air pressurization means including an electric pump connected to a battery to provide electric power to the pump;
- an openable and closable exhaust valve connected to said cuff and driven by a solenoid in order to exhaust air intermittently from said cuff to reduce a cuff pressure in the cuff;
- pressure reducing means for automatically adjusting a cuff pressure reducing exhaust rate to a substantially constant rate regardless of the cuff pressure when said exhaust valve is opened, said pressure reducing means having an exhaustion side connected to the exhaust valve through which air is exhausted from the pressure reducing means;
- control means for controlling opening and closing of said exhaust valve;
- measuring means connected to the pressure cuff for measuring the individual's blood pressure;
- and
- a display connected to the measuring means for displaying results of the blood pressure measurement.
A method of measuring an individual's blood pressure comprising:
- placing a cuff on a portion of an individual's body;
- inflating the cuff to a cuff pressure higher than an individual's maximum blood pressure by an electric pump to which electric power is supplied by a battery;
- controlling an exhaust valve through operation of a solenoid supplied with power from a battery;
- exhausting air intermittently from the cuff by opening the exhaust valve for a predetermined interval, the air being intermittently exhausted via a pressure reducing valve which automatically adjusts a cuff pressure reducing air rate to a substantially constant rate regardless of the cuff pressure;
- measuring the individual's blood pressure by detecting Korotkoff sounds during cuff pressure reduction;
- and
- displaying the result of the blood pressure measurement on a display.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.