Innovative “Watch” Non-Invasively Measures Blood Pressure

The sphygmomanometer has endured as a doctor’s office staple for over 100 years. Just about every visit to a physician involves placing this inflatable cuff on your upper arm and having it squeezed tight to measure the force of blood pushing through your body. Surprisingly, noninvasive blood pressure measurement technology has advanced little, but now STBL Medical Research AG, with the assistance of engineers from the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA) have designed a device to make blood pressure monitoring as simple as wearing a watch.How did EMPA engineers manage to reduce an inflatable cuff down to a small bracelet? Instead of restricting blood flow, the “blood pressure watch” uses several sensors that measure the contact pressure, pulse, and blood flow on the surface of the skin near the wrist. This was no easy feat, especially when it came to accounting for the differences in pressure on the skin resulting from simply adjusting the bracelet on the wrist.Read More »
Source: Medgadget Anesthesiology - Category: Anesthesiology Authors: Tags: Anesthesiology Cardiac Surgery Cardiology Critical Care Diagnostics Medicine Source Type: news