Method and apparatus for estimating the transit time of the aortic pulse from measured time intervals between fiducial points of the balistocardiogram

摘要

A method and apparatus is proposed to estimate the aortic pulse transit time (PTT) from only time intervals measured between fiducial points of the longitudinal balistocardiogram (BCG) without the need to apply any sensor to the area where the arrival of the arterial pulse waveform is to be detected. From the longitudinal BCG of a subject, which can be obtained by means of sensors integrated in a single element with which the subject's body comes into contact, two fiducial points of the BCG waveform are detected in which one of the points is associated with the arrival of the arterial pulse wave to a zone proximal to the heart and the other is associated with the arrival of said arterial pulse wave to a distal zone, respectively. From the time interval between the two points, an estimate of the aortic (carotid-femoral) PTT is provided either directly or through a process of previous calibration.