Importance

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Abstract

Long-term blood pressure measuring apparatus, particularly adapted for ambulatory blood pressure monitoring where the subject can be engaged in normal activities while blood pressure is being measured and to be worn by the subject whose blood pressure is to be measured uses an inflatable cuff, a pump for inflating the cuff, valves for controlling the pressure in the cuff, sensors for the cuff pressure and for auscultatory (Korotkoff) sounds from the subject, a recorder for recording the sounds and blood pressure measurement cycle control circuits. The control circuits provide for blood pressure measurement cycles to recur repetitively at predetermined time intervals, for example every 30 or 60 minutes over a period of many hours, as well as when the subject manually activates the cycle control circuit to produce a blood pressure measurement cycle, but only when an automatic cycle occurs between successive manual cycles so as to limit the frequency of the blood pressure measurement so as to prevent harm to the subject and to conserve power needed for long-term operation of the apparatus. Circuits which control a valve use a linear ramp generator and triangular wave generator to provide a linear change in cuff pressure while the auscultatory sounds are recorded to enable accuracy of indication of the blood pressure from the recorded sounds.

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First Claim