Caltech Team Develops First Noninvasive Method to Continually Measure
True Blood Pressure

Solving a decades-old problem, a multidisciplinary team of Caltech
researchers has figured out a method to noninvasively and continually
measure blood pressure anywhere on the body with next to no disruption
to the patient. A device based on the new technique holds the promise
to enable better vital-sign monitoring at home, in hospitals, and
possibly even in remote locations where resources are limited.

The new patented technique, called resonance sonomanometry, uses sound
waves to gently stimulate resonance in an artery and then uses
ultrasound imaging to measure the artery's resonance frequency,
arriving at a true measurement of blood pressure. In a small clinical
study, the device, which gives patients a gentle buzzing sensation on
the skin, produced results akin to those obtained using the
standard-of-care blood pressure cuff.

"We ended up with a device that is able to measure the absolute blood
pressure--not only the systolic and diastolic numbers that we are used
to getting from blood pressure cuffs--but the full waveform," says
Yaser Abu-Mostafa (PhD '83), professor of electrical engineering and
computer science and one of the authors of a new paper describing the
technique and device in the journal PNAS Nexus. "With this device you
can measure blood pressure continuously and in different sites on the
body, giving you much more information about the blood pressure of a
person."

https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/caltech-team-develops-first-noninvasive-method-to-continually-measure-true-blood-pressure