Arterial pulse decomposition analysis for vital signs determination

1. A method of determining physiological life signs using a non-invasive phlethysmograph having a heartbeat pulse sensor and a memory component, comprising the steps of:

a) bringing a heartbeat pulse sensor of a phlethysmograph into contact with the surface of a patient's skin at point proximate an artery,

b) measuring with said heartbeat pulse sensor at least one of arterial blood vessel displacement and blood pressure changes,

c) collecting from said heartbeat pulse sensor a first data stream of measurements of step (b) and storing said data stream of measurements of step (b) within a memory component,

d) extracting from a set of parameters from the collected data stored within said memory component, a number of physiological life signs parameters,

e) calculating delay time between a primary systolic pulse and an iliac reflection pulse,

f) calculating pulse blood pressure from said calculation of the delay time between the primary pulse and the iliac reflection,

g) repeating steps (b) through (f) continuously for a predetermined period of time and collecting in a memory component a second data stream of measurements of the delay time between the primary pulse and the iliac reflection, and

h) calculating pulse blood pressure variations from said data stream of measurements of the delay time between the primary pulse and the iliac reflection.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the steps of:

i) calculating a ratio of an integral over a line shape of a full arterial pulse to a time interval, and

j) determining mean arterial blood pressure from the ratio of the integral over the line shape of the full arterial pulse to the time interval.

3. The method claim 1 , wherein said sensor produces a signal proportional to the arterial pulse pressure and said data stream is of radial arterial pulse signals from said sensor.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein said data is collected in a rolling long buffer on the order of about 5 to 20 seconds that is processed at a predetermined update rate.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein said sensor responds to blood pressure changes.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said sensor responds to arterial blood vessel displacement.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said physiological life signs comprise at least heart rate, breathing rate, systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising monitoring a ratio of amplitudes of a second systolic pulse to the primary systolic pulse and determining blood pressure from said monitored ratio.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein said physiological life sign is breathing rate, and wherein breathing rate is determined by pulse decomposition analysis.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein said physiological life sign is respiration, and wherein the respiration is determined from a T12 interval, T13 interval, or P2/P1 ratio, wherein:

pulse #1 is the primary systolic pulse,

pulse #2 is a second systolic pulse,

pulse #3 is the iliac reflection pulse,

T12 is the delay time between pulses #2 and #1,

T13 is the delay time between pulses #3 and #1,

P2 is the amplitude of pulse #2,

P1 is the amplitude of pulse #1, and

P2/P1 is calculated using positions and amplitudes obtained from a pulse envelope.

11. The method of claim 7 , wherein said physiological life sign is systolic blood pressure, and wherein a trend in a P2/P1 ratio is used to determine systolic blood pressure, wherein:

pulse #1 is the primary systolic pulse,

pulse #2 is a second systolic pulse,

P2 is the amplitude of pulse #2, and

P1 is the amplitude of pulse #1.

12. The method of claim 7 , wherein said physiological life sign is mean arterial pressure and wherein mean arterial pressure is determined by obtaining a ratio of an integral over a line shape of a full radial arterial pulse to a time interval involved.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining heart rate by converting an inter-beat interval between adjacent heartbeats into a rate beat by beat, or as an average over a predetermined number of inter-beat intervals.

14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising

i) removing all dc offsets from said data of step c, centering said data at approximately a zero value, and

j) determining physiological life signs from said data.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein said dc offsets are removed and the data is centered at approximately zero by means of an FFT bandpass filter.