A novel non-invasive blood pressure waveform measuring system compared to Millar applanation tonometry

The accurate, non-invasive, measuring of the continuous arterial blood pressure waveform faces some difficulties and an innovative blood pressure measurement technology is urgently needed. However, the arterial blood pressure waveform plays an essential role in health care by providing diagnostic information and base for calculating several heart function parameters. The aim of this study is to introduce a novel non-invasive measuring system that can measure the arterial blood pressure waveform with high accuracy in comparison to an applanation tonometry system. The applied measuring device utilizes a new measurement strategy enabled by the OptoForce 3D force sensor, which is attached to the wrist at the radial artery. To validate the accuracy, 30 simultaneous measurements were taken with a Millar tonometer. For the simultaneously recorded non-invasive signals, the similarity was high (the average correlation was \(0.9213\pm 0.063\)). The differences in the systolic and the diastolic blood pressure measured by the two systems are small. The average differences (\(\pm \hbox {SD}\)) for simultaneously recorded systolic, diastolic, mean arterial and incisura pressures were: \(0.35\pm 1.75\), \(0.02 \pm 0.19\), \(2.88\pm 2.42\) and \(3.84\pm 3.90 \,\text {mmHg}\), respectively. These results satisfy the AAMI criteria. Based on our results, this new system requires further development and validation against invasive arterial blood pressure monitoring in order to prove its usefulness in patient monitoring, emergency care, and pulse diagnosis.