Technology Development for Simultaneous Wearable Monitoring of Cerebral Hemodynamics and Blood Pressure

For many cerebrovascular diseases (CVDs) both blood pressure (BP) and hemodynamic changes are important clinical variables. In this paper, we describe the development of a novel approach to noninvasively and simultaneously monitor cerebral hemodynamics, blood pressure and other important parameters at high temporal resolution (250Hz sampling rate). In this approach, cerebral hemodynamics are acquired using NIRS based sensors and algorithms, whereas continuous blood pressure is acquired by superficial temporal artery (STA) tonometry with pulse transit time based drift correction. The sensors, monitoring system and data analysis algorithms used in the prototype for this approach are reported in detail in this paper. Preliminary performance tests demonstrated that we were able to simultaneously and noninvasively record and reveal cerebral hemodynamics and BP during people's daily activity. As examples, we report dynamic cerebral hemodynamic and blood pressure fluctuations during postural changes and micturition. These preliminary results demonstrate the feasibility of our approach, and its unique power in catching hemodynamics and BP fluctuations during transient symptoms (such as syncope) and revealing the dynamic features of related events.