Augmentation-index measuring apparatus

Abstract

An augmentation-index measuring apparatus including a cuff which is adapted to be worn on a portion of a living subject to press the portion, a fourth-order-differentiating device for subjecting a cuff pulse wave obtained from the cuff, to a fourth-order differentiation, and thereby obtaining a fourth-order-differentiated waveform, a peak-point determining device for determining, based on the fourth-order-differentiated waveform obtained by the fourth-order-differentiating device, a peak point of an incident-wave component contained in the cuff pulse wave and a peak point of a reflected-wave component contained in the cuff pulse wave, and an augmentation-index determining device for determining an augmentation index of the subject that indicates a proportion of one of a first magnitude of the cuff pulse wave at a time of occurrence of the peak point of the incident-wave component and a second magnitude of the cuff pulse wave at a time of occurrence of the peak point of the reflected-wave component, to the other of the first and second magnitudes.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.