Diagnosing hypertension or hemodialysis requires patients to carry a blood pressure (BP) monitoring device for 24 hours. Th erefore, wearing the wrist/arm-based BP monitoring device, in this case, has a signifi cant impact on users' daily activities. To address the problem, we developed eBP, an ear-worn device that measures blood pressure from inside the ear. Th rough the evaluation of 35 subjects, eBP can achieve the average error of 1.8 mmHg for systolic BP and -3.1 mmHg for diastolic BP with the standard deviation error of 7.2 mmHg and 7.9 mmHg, respectively.
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eBP: an ear-worn device for frequent and comfortable blood pressure monitoring
Frequent blood pressure monitoring is the key to diagnosis and treatments of many severe diseases. However, the conventional ambulatory methods require patients to carry a blood pressure (BP) monitoring device for 24 h and conduct the measurement every 10--15 min. Despite their extensive usage, wearing the wrist/arm-based BP monitoring device for a long time has a significant impact on users' daily activities. To address the problem, we developed eBP to measure blood pressure (BP) from inside user's ear aiming to minimize the measurement's impact on users' normal activities although maximizing its comfort level. The key novelty of eBP includes (1) a light-based inflatable pulse sensor which goes inside the ear, (2) a digital air pump with a fine controller, and (3) BP estimation algorithms that eliminate the need of blocking the blood flow inside the ear. Through the comparative study of 35 subjects, eBP can achieve the average error of 1.8 mmHg for systolic (high-pressure value) and -3.1 mmHg for diastolic (low-pressure value) with the standard deviation error of 7.2 mmHg and 7.9 mmHg, respectively. These results satisfy the FDA's AAMI standard, which requires a mean error of less than 5 mmHg and a standard deviation of less than 8 mmHg.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1846541
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10303238
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Communications of the ACM
- Volume:
- 64
- Issue:
- 8
- ISSN:
- 0001-0782
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1145/3470446
