ホームヘルスケアのための便座内蔵型血圧計測システムの試作

金沢大学大学院自然科学研究科The daily monitoring of health conditions at home is a very important subject not only as an effective scheme for the early diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular and other diseases, but also for the prevention and control of such diseases. From this point of view, we have been developing a fully automated "non-conscious" monitoring system for home healthcare. In this paper, we describe the structural details of a newly developed blood pressure (BP) measurement system built into a toilet seat and some results obtained using the system. The principle used for BP measurement was the volume-oscillometric method. A reflectance-type photop-lethysmographic sensor was installed in an appropriate position on the toilet seat, and it was automatically lifted and lowered using a newly designed helicoid-type actuator. Systolic (SBP) and mean BP (MBP) were obtained using the arterial volume pulsation signal obtained by the sensor. In order to evaluate the accuracy of the BP measurements, simultaneous measurements were carried out using two types of commercially available BP monitors (upper arm and wrist). Simultaneous measurement using an "invasive technique" via catheterization to the right brachial artery was also conducted. From the results obtained (bias [s.d.] for SBP; Upper arm: -1.20 [7.90] mmHg, Wrist: 0.44 [7.28] mmHg, Invasive: -0.41 [4.91] mmHg, bias [s.d.] for MBP; Upper arm: 4.40 [6.91] mmHg, Wrist: 5.07 [8.04] mmHg, Invasive: 3.68 [5.69] mmHg), reasonable accuracy of the present system was clearly demonstrated. This system, which requires no cumbersome procedures for BP measurement such as cuff setting, proper positioning of measuring site and so on, appears to be a useful means for long-term home healthcare monitoring

安全運転支援・健康管理のための各種循環生理指標簡易同時計測システムの開発

The long term goal of our research is to develop an in-car health screening instrument, based on a novel approach for physiological measurement, in order to contribute to much-needed efforts aimed at achieving safer driving. We describe here a feasibility study in which a system was constructed to derive cardiac indices non-invasively and simultaneously using a finger cuff. Specifically, the instrument measures blood pressure (BP), pulse rate (PR), normalized pulse volume (NPV) reflecting alpha-adrenergic sympathetic activity, and finger-artery elasticity index (FEI). The instrument\u27s measurement process has two phases:firstly, cuff pressure is maintained at 30 mmHg to measure the NPV and PR;secondly, whilst applying a gradual change in counter-pressure, the BP and FEI are measured by application of the volume-oscillometric method. We tested a prototype instrument in 5 healthy male and female volunteers (age 21, 22, 36, 37, 49 years) during two weeks day-to-day living, including a 33-hour period of total sleep deprivation as physiological challenge. The results indicated that with sleep deprivation there appear to be relatively large physiological changes. In conclusion, the prototype system we have developed has allowed the periodic collection of physiological data in a convenient and expeditious way without any failure, demonstrating the possibility to detect an adverse effect on health. Further investigations will be needed in a larger group of subjects with a variety of real environmental conditions