Importance

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Abstract

In a method for automatic non-invasive monitoring of a patient's blood pressure a cuff is applied around an arm of the patient and inflated to a predetermined pressure, whereafter the pressure in said cuff is stepwise reduced and the applied pressure is held constant at each step until at least one oscillation caused by a heartbeat has occurred. In such a method, the systolic and/or diastolic and/or mean blood pressure are determined on the basis of the relations of the amplitudes or peak values of the oscillations at the various pressure steps. In order to avoid errors in the blood pressure determination due to artifacts, a first aspect of the invention provides for a spectral analyzer for pressure signal frequencies between 6 and 10 Hz. When this analyzer detects spectral signal components of the pressure signal in the pressure channel above a specific amplitude limit, the instantaneous oscillation is rejected. According to a second aspect of the invention, the gradient and the scatter of the pressure channel signal are examined within a time window, and, in case one of the two limit values for a gradient or scattering are exceeded, a movement artifact is detected.

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First Claim