Method and apparatus for continuous assessment of a cardiovascular parameter using the arterial pulse pressure propagation time and waveform

1. A method for determining a cardiovascular parameter comprising:

receiving an input signal corresponding to an arterial blood pressure measurement over an interval that covers at least one cardiac cycle;

determining a propagation time of the input signal;

determining at least one statistical moment of the input signal; and

determining, using at least a portion of a computing unit, an estimate of the cardiovascular parameter using the propagation time and the at least one statistical moment, wherein the cardiovascular parameter is selected from a group consisting of cardiac output and stroke volume.

2. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein the at least one statistical moment of the input signal is selected from a group consisting of a standard deviation of the input signal, kurtosis of the input signal and skewness of the input signal.

3. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein the step of determining a propagation time of the input signal includes determining a transit time between a reference signal detected near a heart of a subject and a peripheral arterial signal detected near an artery of the subject.

4. The method as defined in claim 3 wherein the reference signal is selected from a group consisting of an electrocardiogram measurement, a central aortic pressure measurement, a transthoracic bioimpedance measurement and a Doppler ultrasound blood velocity measurement.

5. The method as defined in claim 3 wherein the peripheral arterial signal is selected from a group consisting of an arterial blood pressure measurement, an optical oximetry measurement that measures the oxygen saturation of the blood of the subject, a peripheral bioimpedance measurement and a Doppler ultrasound blood velocity measurement.

6. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein determining an estimate of the cardiovascular parameter using the propagation time includes using a standard deviation of the input signal to determine an estimate of the cardiovascular parameter.

7. The method as defined in claim 1 further comprising receiving an anthropometric parameter of the subject.

8. The method as defined in claim 7 wherein determining an estimate of the cardiovascular parameter using the propagation time also includes using the anthropometric parameter to determine an estimate of the cardiovascular parameter.

9. The method as defined in claim 7 further comprising estimating an arterial compliance value using the propagation time and the anthropometric parameter.

10. The method as defined in claim 9 further comprising estimating a stroke volume using the arterial compliance value and a standard deviation of the input signal.

11. The method as defined in claim 10 further comprising:

receiving a heart rate measurement of a subject; and

estimating cardiac output using the heart rate measurement and the stroke volume.

12. The method as defined in claim 9 further comprising generating a cardiac output estimate using the arterial compliance and the standard deviation.

13. The method as defined in claim 12 further comprising:

receiving a calibration cardiac output value; and

calculating a calibration constant as a quotient between the calibration cardiac output estimate and the product of the heart rate, the arterial compliance and the standard deviation.

14. The method as defined in claim 9 wherein estimating an arterial compliance value further comprises:

determining an approximating function relating to a plurality of reference measurements to arterial compliance, wherein the approximating function is a function of the propagation time of the input signal and the anthropometric parameter; and

estimating the arterial compliance value of the subject by evaluating the approximating function with the propagation time of the input signal and the anthropometric parameter.

15. The method as defined in claim 1 further comprising:

calculating a component propagation time value for each cardiac cycle from amongst a plurality of cardiac cycles;

computing a composite propagation time value as an average of the component propagation time values; and

using the composite propagation time value in calculating an estimate of the cardiovascular parameter.