Robust linear parameter-varying control of blood pressure using vasoactive drugs

Abstract

Resuscitation of emergency care patients requires fast restoration of blood pressure to a target value to achieve hemodynamic stability and vital organ perfusion. A robust control design methodology is presented in this paper for regulating the blood pressure of hypotensive patients by means of the closed-loop administration of vasoactive drugs. To this end, a dynamic first-order delay model is utilised to describe the vasoactive drug response with varying parameters that represent intra-patient and inter-patient variability. The proposed framework consists of two components: first, an online model parameter estimation is carried out using a multiple-model extended Kalman-filter. Second, the estimated model parameters are used for continuously scheduling a robust linear parameter-varying (LPV) controller. The closed-loop behaviour is characterised by parameter-varying dynamic weights designed to regulate the mean arterial pressure to a target value. Experimental data of blood pressure response of anesthetised pigs to phenylephrine injection are used for validating the LPV blood pressure models. Simulation studies are provided to validate the online model estimation and the LPV blood pressure control using phenylephrine drug injection models representing patients showing sensitive, nominal and insensitive response to the drug.

Keywords:

• linear parameter varying systems
• blood pressure regulation
• parameter estimation
• robust control

Acknowledgements

The research has been conducted in collaboration with GC Kramer, Muzna Khan and N. Marques from the Resuscitation Research laboratory, Department of Anesthesiology, UTMB.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Financial support from the Office of Naval Research Contract [N0001412C0556] “Decision Support and Closed Loop Control of Drugs and Fluids” through a sub-award from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), Galveston, Texas is gratefully acknowledged.