Numerical study to evaluate the effect of a surface-based sensor on arterial tonometry

Abstract

Arterial tonometry is a widely used non-invasive blood pressure measurement method. In contrast to the cuff-based method, it is possible to obtain a continuous pressure profile with respect to systolic and diastolic pressures using this method. However, due to a requirement of arterial tonometry—that a sensor needs to be placed directly above a blood vessel—placement error is inevitable if the measurement device is only capable of measuring local regions. This study assumed that the plate sensor is flexible, thus reducing the placement error. We investigated the pressure distribution along the wrist surface rather than the local region through the contact simulation between the flexible plate sensor and the wrist. As a result, we concluded that there is a unique pressure distribution for any specific wrist, regardless of the length and position of the plate, and that it is possible to measure the blood pressure using the response at the wrist surface to the pressure inside the radial artery.

Keywords:

• Arterial tonometry
• Finite element methods
• Plate sensor
• Radial artery

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Chung-Ang University research grant in 2018 and Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (No. 2015R1D1A1A01057341).