Importance

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Abstract

A blood-pressure monitoring apparatus including a measuring device which includes an inflatable cuff adapted to apply a pressing pressure to a body portion of a living subject and measures a blood-pressure value of the living subject by changing the pressing pressure of the inflatable cuff, an information obtaining device which iteratively obtains a piece of information relating to propagation of a pulse wave through an arterial vessel of the subject, an estimating device for iteratively estimating a blood-pressure value, EBP, of the subject, based on each piece of pulse-wave-propagation-relating information, PWPI, obtained by the information obtaining device, according to a linear relationship between pulse-wave-propagation-relating information and blood pressure, the linear relationship being defined by a linear expression, EBP=.alpha.(PWPI)+.alpha., where .alpha. is a slope and .beta. is an intercept, an index-value calculating device for calculating an index value indicative of a hardness of a blood vessel of the subject, and a slope determining device for determining, based on the calculated index value, the slope .alpha. of the linear expression.

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First Claim