Colin Corporation

Colin Electronics Co., Ltd.

Colin Medical Technology Corporation

Hideo Nishibayashi

Kiyoyuki Narimatsu

Akihiro Yokozeki

Masami Goto

Ye Aung

Tomohiro Nunome

Masami Takaya

Toshihiko Ogura

Hiroshi Sakai

Masayuki Shinoda

William H McGinnis

Toshiya Mizukoshi

An inflatable cuff for blood pressure measurement includes a first inflatable bag to press an arterial vessel of a body portion of a living subject for stopping blood flow; a second inflatable bag for sensing a pulse wave propagating along the arterial vessel, which is supported by the inflatable cuff such that the second inflatable bag is located inside a downstream-side portion of the first inflatable bag in the direction of the blood flows; a shielding member disposed between the first inflatable bag and the second inflatable bag so as to prevent an oscillation of the first inflatable bag from propagating to the second inflatable bag; and a slidable separating member disposed between the shielding member and the second inflatable bag so as to prevent generation of a noise caused by a slide contact of the shielding member with the second inflatable bag.

Inflatable cuff for blood pressure measurement

An inflatable cuff for blood pressure measurement includes a first inflatable bag which is inflatable to press an arterial vessel of a body portion of a living subject and stop flow of blood in the arterial vessel which the inflatable cuff is adapted to be wound around the body portion; a second inflatable bag for sensing a pulse wave propagating along the arterial vessel, which is supported by the inflatable cuff such that the second inflatable bag is located inside a downstream-side portion of the first inflatable bag in the direction of the blood flows in the arterial vessel, and which has a dimension as measured in the direction that is smaller than a dimension of the first inflatable bag as measured in said direction; and a fluid-filled bag which is located between the second inflatable bag and the body portion and which is filled with incompressible fluid.

A blood pressure measuring apparatus having an inflatable cuff including a first inflatable bag adapted to be worn on a body portion of a living subject so as to exclude blood from an artery located in the body portion, and a second inflatable bag adapted to be worn on the body portion, on a distal side of a middle portion of the first inflatable bag, so as to detect a pulse wave produced from the artery, a first piping which is connected to the first inflatable bag, a second piping which is branched from the first piping and is connected to the second inflatable bag, a pump which supplies an inflating fluid to the first and second inflatable bags via the first and second pipings, respectively, a blood pressure determining device which determines a blood pressure of the subject based on the pulse wave detected through the second inflatable bag when a pressing pressure of the first inflatable bag is changed, and a switching device which is provided in the second piping and which selectively switches the second piping to a connected state in which the second piping is connected to the first piping and to a disconnected state in which the second piping is disconnected from the first piping.

Blood pressure measuring 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

A blood-pressure measuring apparatus including a cuff worn on a body portion of a subject to apply a pressure to the body portion; a changing device which changes the cuff pressure; a determining device which determines a diastolic and mean blood pressure of the subject; a detecting device which detects a cuff pulse wave as an oscillation of the cuff pressure; a pulse-wave-magnitude determining device for operating the changing device; and a systolic-blood-pressure determining device for determining a systolic blood pressure of the subject, based on the determined diastolic and mean blood pressure and the determined minimal, mean, and maximal magnitudes of the cuff pulse wave, according to a fact that the minimal, mean, and maximal magnitudes of the cuff pulse wave correspond to the diastolic, mean, and systolic blood pressure of the subject, respectively.

Blood-pressure measuring apparatus

An apparatus for measuring an inferior-and-superior-limb blood-pressure index of a living subject, including an inferior-limb blood-pressure measuring device, a superior-limb blood-pressure measuring device, an index determining means for determining the inferior-and-superior-limb blood-pressure index, based on a systolic blood pressure of an inferior limb, measured by the inferior-limb blood-pressure measuring device and a systolic blood pressure of a superior limb, measured by the superior-limb blood-pressure measuring device, an estimated-inferior-limb-systolic-blood-pressure determining means for determining an estimated systolic blood pressure of the inferior limb, an estimated-superior-limb-systolic-blood-pressure determining means for determining an estimated systolic blood pressure of the superior limb, and a cuff-pressure control means for controlling at least one of respective pressures of the inferior-limb cuff and the superior-limb cuff, such that when the respective pressures of an inferior-limb cuff and a superior-limb cuff are decreased, the respective pressures of the inferior-limb cuff and the superior-limb cuff become equal to the respective estimated systolic blood pressures of the inferior limb and the superior limb, at the same time.

Inferior-and-superior-limb blood-pressure-index measuring apparatus

An apparatus for measuring a systolic blood pressure of a living subject, including an inflatable cuff which is adapted to be wound around a body portion of the subject and includes a first inflatable bag which is inflatable to press an artery of the body portion, a first amplitude determining device for determining a first amplitude of each of a plurality of heartbeat-synchronous pulses of a first pulse wave which is produced in the first inflatable bag when a pressure in the first bag is changed, a pulse-wave detecting device which detects a second pulse wave which propagates from the artery to a downstream-side portion of the cuff as seen in a blood-flow direction in which blood flows in the artery, a second amplitude determining device for determining a second amplitude of each of a plurality of heartbeat-synchronous pulses of the second pulse wave which is detected by the pulse-wave detecting device when the pressure of the first inflatable bag is changed, a ratio calculating device for calculating a ratio of one of each of the first amplitudes determined by the first amplitude determining means and each of the second amplitudes determined by the second amplitude determining means to the other of the each of the first amplitudes and the each of the second amplitudes, and a blood-pressure determining device for determining the systolic blood pressure of the subject, based on the ratios calculated by the ratio calculating device.

A blood-pressure measuring apparatus including a cuff having an inflatable bag, a first pulse-wave sensor which detects a first pulse wave propagated to the bag, a second pulse-wave sensor which detects a second pulse wave propagated to a downstream-side portion of the cuff wound around a body portion of a subject in a direction of flow of blood in an artery of the body portion, an amplitude correcting device for correcting a first group of respective amplitudes of heartbeat-synchronous pulses of the first pulse wave and/or a second group of respective amplitudes of heartbeat-synchronous pulses of the second pulse wave, so that one or more amplitudes of the first group that correspond to one or more pulses of the first pulse wave that are detected while the flow of blood is stopped by the inflated bag is equal to one or more amplitudes of the second group that correspond to one or more pulses of the second pulse wave that are detected while the flow of blood is stopped by the bag, an amplitude-difference determining device for determining, after the correction, a difference between each of the amplitudes of the first group and a corresponding one of the amplitudes of the second group, and a blood-pressure determining device for determining a blood pressure of the subject based on the respective differences between the respective amplitudes of the first group and the corresponding amplitudes of the second group.

Blood-pressure measuring device

An automatic blood pressure measuring system employs an oscillometric method, a cuff applying pressure to an arterial vessel and then gradually reducing the pressure. On a distal side of the cuff, as seen from the heart of the subject, a pulse wave sensor presses against a distal section of the vessel. If the pulse wave sensor detects a pulse wave from the distal section of the vessel after the force applied by the cuff reaches a first target value, indicating that the initial pressure was insufficiently low, the force is increased to a second target value. After determining a relationship between the blood pressure and the magnitude of the pulse wave detected by the pulse wave sensor, blood pressure can be monitored by the pulse wave sensor.

Automatic blood pressure measuring system

An apparatus for detecting a pressure pulse wave from a living subject, including a pressure pulse wave sensor which detects a pressure pulse wave which is produced from an artery of the subject, a pressing device which presses the sensor against the artery via a body surface of the subject, a position changing device which moves the sensor and thereby changes a position of the sensor relative to the artery in a direction of width of the artery, and a control device which determines, based on the pulse wave detected by the sensor, an optimum pressing position of the sensor where the sensor is pressed against the artery by the pressing device, and controls the position changing device to position the sensor at the optimum pressing position, the control device functioning as a moving device for controlling the position changing device to move the sensor relative to the artery while the sensor is pressed on the body surface by the pressing device, a determining device for determining the optimum pressing position of the sensor based on the pressure pulse wave detected by the sensor while the sensor is pressed by the pressing device and is moved by the position changing device under control of the moving device, and a stopping device for controlling the position changing device to stop moving the sensor when the optimum pressing position of the sensor is determined by the determining device.

Pressure pulse wave detecting apparatus

A pulse wave detecting apparatus including a pulse wave sensor having a press surface and including at least one array of pressure sensing elements provided in the press surface; a pressing device which produces a pressing force to press the press surface of the pulse wave sensor against an arterial vessel via body surface; a regulating device for changing the pressing force of the pressing device applied to the pulse wave sensor, determining an optimum value of the pressing force based on at least one of the pulse wave signals generated from the pressure sensing elements, and holding the pressing force of the pressing device at the thus determined optimum value; a lower-peak variation determining device for determining a lower peak of at least one pulse of each of the pulse waves represented by the respective pulse wave signals from the pressure sensing elements, the lower-peak variation determining device iteratively determining a variation of the respective lower peaks of the pulse waves with respect to the array of pressure sensing elements after the pressing force of the pressing device is held at the optimum value; and a judging device for judging whether a pressing condition of the pulse wave sensor on the body surface is stable, based on change of the lower-peak variations determined by the lower-peak variation determining device.

Growing community of inventors

Komaki, Japan

Hideo Nishibayashi