Colin Corporation

Colin Medical Technology Corporation

Akihiro Yokozeki

Kiyoyuki Narimatsu

Hidekatsu Inukai

Keizoh Kawaguchi

Chikao Harada

Hideo Nishibayashi

Masami Goto

Yoshihisa Miwa

Toshihiko Ogura

Tomohiro Nunome

Tokuji Hayakawa

Makoto Miyazaki

Tohru Oka

Hiroshi Masuda

An arteriosclerosis evaluating apparatusincludes an arteriosclerosis evaluating procedure(Steps S, S, S, and S) that evaluates arteriosclerosis of a living subject, based on a relationship between difference &#x394;P of internal and external pressure of an artery of the subject in the state in which the pressure difference &#x394;P is in equilibrium, and amplitude AM of a pulse wave produced from the artery. Therefore, the present apparatuscan as easily as possible evaluate the arteriosclerosis of the subject based on a characteristic curverepresenting the relationship between in-equilibrium pressure difference &#x394;P and pulse-wave amplitude AM which curve is obtained from a pressing pressure Pc of a cuffwound around a certain portion of the subject, and the pulse wave produced from the artery.

Arteriosclerosis evaluating apparatus

A blood pressure monitor including a cuff, a pressure sensor which detects a pressure in the cuff, a pressure regulating device which increases the pressure of the cuff, a pulse-amplitude determining device for determining an amplitude of each of pulses of a pulse wave which are produced in the cuff and detected by the pressure sensor while the cuff pressure is increased, a candidate determining device for determining, as a diastolic BP candidate, a pressure of the cuff which is detected by the pressure sensor and which corresponds to an amplitude of a first pulse of the pulses determined by the pulse-amplitude determining device, by judging whether the amplitude of the first pulse is not greater than a reference value which is smaller than an amplitude of at least one second pulse of the pulses, by a predetermined proportion of the amplitude of the second pulse, the amplitude of the second pulse being determined by the pulse-amplitude determining device after the amplitude of the first pulse is determined, and a BP determining device for determining, as a monitor diastolic BP value, the cuff pressure corresponding to the amplitude of the first pulse, when the candidate determining device determines, as the diastolic BP candidate, the cuff pressure corresponding to the amplitude of the first pulse, with respect to a predetermined number of the one or more second pulses.

Blood pressure monitor

An oscillometric automatic blood-pressure measuring apparatus, including an inflatable cuff which is adapted to be wound around a portion of a living subject, so as to detect respective amplitudes of a plurality of heartbeat-synchronous pulses of a cuff pulse wave as an oscillatory component that is produced in the cuff in synchronism with heartbeats of the subject in a cuff-pressure change process in which a cuff pressure as a pressure in the cuff is changed, a cuff-pulse-wave-amplitude correcting device for correcting the respective amplitudes of the respective pulses of the cuff pulse wave, according to a predetermined non-linear relationship between difference between cuff pressure and subject's mean blood pressure, and amplitude of cuff pulse wave, and a blood-pressure determining device for determining a blood pressure of the subject based on a change of the corrected amplitudes of the cuff pulse wave.

Oscillometric automatic blood-pressure measuring apparatus

The gate means extracts the partial impedance pulse wave SM from the thorax impedance pulse wave SM detected by the thorax impedance pulse wave detector . This is done over an intake period defined as a period starting from a first time T after the time when the R wave of the induced electro-cardiac wave is detected to the time when a rising edge of the photoelectric pulse wave SM is detected. Then, the heartbeat synchronous information determining means selects a rising edge of the partial impedance pulse wave SM that periodically appears as heartbeat synchronous information I . Thus, it is possible to accurately determine the heartbeat synchronous information I . Additionally, since the photoelectric pulse wave SM that is detected by the photoelectric pulse wave sensor is largely free of noise it is possible to accurately determine the end of the period for reading the thorax impedance pulse wave SM .

Heartbeat synchronous information acquiring apparatus

A blood pressure monitor apparatus for monitoring a blood pressure of a living subject, comprising: pulse-wave-propagation-velocity-relating information obtaining means for successively obtaining pulse-wave-propagation-velocity-relating information which relates to a pulse-wave propagation velocity at which a pulse wave propagates in an artery of the subject; pulse-period-relating information obtaining means for successively obtaining pulse-period-relating information which relates to a pulse period of the subject; peripheral-blood-volume-relating information obtaining means for successively obtaining peripheral-blood-volume-relating information which relates to a volume of blood which flows in a peripheral body portion of the subject; and abnormality judging means for judging that the blood pressure of the subject is abnormal when at least one of the pulse-wave-propagation-velocity-relating information, pulse-period-relating information, and peripheral-blood-volume-relating information does not fall within a corresponding one of a first, a second and a third reference range.

Blood pressure monitor apparatus

An apparatus for automatically measuring a blood pressure of a living subject, including an inflatable cuff which is wound around a portion of the subject, a cuff pulse wave including heartbeat-synchronous pulses occurring to the cuff when a pressure in the cuff is changed, a pressure-pulse-wave detecting device which includes a pressure-pulse-wave sensor that is pressed against an artery of the subject and which detects, through the sensor, a pressure pulse wave that is produced by the artery when the pressure of the cuff is changed and that includes heartbeat-synchronous pulses, a correction-factor determining device for determining, for each of the heartbeat-synchronous pulses of the pressure pulse wave, a correction factor to correct an amplitude of each heartbeat-synchronous pulse to a predetermined value, a corrected-cuff-pulse-wave-amplitude determining device for multiplying, by the correction factor determined for each of the heartbeat-synchronous pulses of the pressure pulse wave, an amplitude of one of the heartbeat-synchronous pulses of the cuff pulse wave that corresponds to each heartbeat-synchronous pulse of the pressure pulse wave, and thereby determining a corrected amplitude of the one heartbeat-synchronous pulse of the cuff pulse wave, and a blood-pressure determining device for determining a blood pressure of the subject based on a change of the respective corrected amplitudes of the respective pulses of the cuff pulse wave, with respect to the pressure of the cuff.

Automatic blood-pressure measuring apparatus

An apparatus for evaluating a degree of hardness of an artery of a living subject, including a blood-flow stopping device which stops a flow of blood through a first portion of the subject, and a blood-amount detecting device which is adapted to be worn on a second portion of the subject that is located on a downstream side of the first portion and which produces a blood-amount signal representing an amount of blood present in the second portion.

Arterial-hardness evaluating apparatus

An apparatus for automatically measuring a blood pressure of a living subject, including an inflatable cuff which is adapted to be wound around a portion of the subject, an increase-end-pressure determining device for determining, based on a cuff pulse wave occurring to the cuff when a pressure in the cuff is increased at a first rate, an increase-end pressure to which the pressure of the cuff is increased at the first rate, at which the increasing of the pressure of the cuff is ended, and from which the pressure of the cuff is decreased at a second rate lower than the first rate, and a blood-pressure determining device for determining a blood pressure of the subject based on a physical signal obtained from the subject when the pressure of the cuff is decreased at the second rate from the increase-end pressure.

An apparatus for automatically measuring a blood pressure of a living subject, including a cuff which is wound around a portion of the subject, a cuff pulse wave occurring to the cuff when a pressure in the cuff is changed, a pulse-wave detecting device which is worn on another portion of the subject and detects a volumetric pulse wave, a correction-factor determining device for iteratively determining, for each of respective pulses of the volumetric pulse wave, a correction factor to correct an amplitude of the each pulse to a predetermined value, a first determining device for iteratively multiplying, by the correction factor determined for the each of the pulses of the volumetric pulse wave, an amplitude of one of the pulses of the cuff pulse wave that corresponds to the each pulse of the volumetric pulse wave, and thereby determining a corrected amplitude of the one pulse of the cuff pulse wave, and a second determining device for determining a blood pressure of the subject based on a change of the respective corrected amplitudes of the respective pulses of the cuff pulse wave, with respect to the pressure of the cuff.

An apparatus for estimating a blood pressure of a living subject, including a measuring device which iteratively measures a blood pressure of the subject, a first device for obtaining first information relating to velocity of propagation of pulse wave, a second device for obtaining at least one of second information relating to heart rate and third information relating to area defined by volume pulse wave, a memory which stores groups of information each group of which includes the blood pressure, the first information, and at least one of the second information and the third information, a determining device for determining an expression representing a relationship between (A) blood pressure, and (B ) first information and (B ) at least one of (B ) second information and (B ) third information, and having a first coefficient for the first information, at least one second coefficient for at least one of the second and third information, and a constant, the determining device determining the coefficients and constant of the expression by applying a multiple regression analysis to more than a predetermined number of groups of information last stored in the memory, the predetermined number being equal to a total number of the coefficients and the constant, and an estimating device for successively estimating, according to the expression, a blood pressure of the subject based on each first information and at least one of each second information and each third information.

Blood pressure estimating apparatus

A blood pressure monitor apparatus for monitoring a blood pressure of a living subject, comprising: blood pressure-relating information obtaining means for successively obtaining blood pressure-relating information which decreases or increases with a decrease or an increase of the blood pressure of the subject, or blood pressure-relating information which increases or decreases with a decrease or an increase of the blood pressure of the subject; decrease or increase determining means for determining a decrease or an increase of the blood pressure-relating information successively obtained by the obtaining means; and abnormality judging means for judging that the blood pressure of the subject is abnormal when the decrease or increase of the blood pressure-relating information is greater than a predetermined reference value (&ggr; , &ggr; ), or abnormality judging means for judging that the blood pressure of the subject is abnormal when the blood pressure-relating information is greater than a predetermined reference value (TH ) or smaller than a predetermined reference value (TH ).

A device for monitoring the blood pressure of a living subject, including a pulse-wave-propagation-velocity-relating information obtaining device for successively obtaining pulse-wave-propagation-velocity-relating information which relates to a pulse-wave propagation velocity at which a pulse wave propagates in an artery of the subject, a pulse-period-relating information obtaining device for successively obtaining pulse-period-relating information which relates to a pulse period of the subject, a peripheral-blood-volume-relating information obtaining device for successively obtaining peripheral-blood-volume-relating information which relates to a volume of blood which flows in a peripheral body portion of the subject, and an abnormality judging device for judging that the blood pressure of the subject is abnormal when at least one of the pulse-wave-propagation-velocity-relating information, pulse-period-relating information, and peripheral-blood-volume-relating information does not fall within a corresponding one of a first, a second and a third reference range.

A blood-pressure monitor, including a blood-pressure measuring device including a cuff, an information obtaining device which iteratively obtains, from a living subject, physical information which changes with change of blood pressure of the subject, a measurement starting device for starting a measurement of the blood-pressure measuring device, when a subsequent piece of information obtained by the obtaining device after the measuring device has measured a last blood pressure of the subject in a last measurement thereof has been deviated by not less than a predetermined amount from an initial piece of information obtained by the obtaining device when the measuring device measured the last blood pressure of the subject, a display device which displays a graph representing the pieces of information obtained by the obtaining device, and a control device which controls the display device to display the graph representing the initial piece of information and each one of subsequent pieces of information iteratively obtained by the obtaining device after the measuring device has measured the last blood pressure of the subject, so that the initial piece of information and the each one subsequent piece of information can be compared with each other.

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Komaki, Japan

Akihiro Yokozeki