“oBPM” – a disruptive technology for non-invasive, continuous blood pressure measurement

Elevated blood pressure remains a condition affecting one third of adults, and hypertension can lead to severe complications as stroke or heart failure. A strategy to fight hypertension and associated healthcare costs is ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, which allows reducing the number of visits to the practitioner’s office. The Swiss Research and Technology Organization CSEM has invented an optical blood pressure monitoring method (CSEM trademark oBPM), a cuffless wearable sensing concept to measure blood pressure continuously with highest quality at rest or in motion.
 
The form factor of the oBPM measuring concept relies on the physiological analysis of transmission photoplethysmographic signals measured at the fingertip. Such signals are recorded by commercial pulse oximeters, which are routinely applied to almost every patient during induction of general anesthesia. First experimental evidence on the feasibility of tracking beat-by-beat changes of blood pressure in humans by simple optical means has been shown during a clinical study, performed in collaboration with the University Hospital in Lausanne (CHUV).
 
While the approach does not aim at replacing oscillometric gold-standard monitoring, it introduces an appealing approach to continuously estimate blood pressure measurements in-between two cuff inflations, thus allowing the detection of sudden blood pressure changes and thereby increasing the patient’s safety. CSEM’s proprietary oBPM technology improves the patients’ safety during anesthetic procedures and surgery by further decreasing morbidity associated with invasive monitoring in the operating room.

Contact: CSEM, Aline Bassin Di Iullo, aline.bassin@csem.ch