| abstract |
A health monitoring and biofeedback system comprising a photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor, a processing device, and a Web site server for determining, displaying and analyzing various cardiovascular parameters. The PPG sensor is installed within a manually operated user input device such as a mouse or keyboard, measures a user's blood volume contour and transmits it to a processing device such as a personal computer or a personal digital assistant (PDA). The system determines a plurality of cardiovascular indices including mean blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature, respiratory rate, and arterial compliance on the basis of signal characteristics of the systolic wave pulse and the systolic reflected wave pulse present within the digital volume pulse derived from the PPG pulse contour. Signal characteristics of the systolic reflected wave pulse can be determined through various pulse analysis techniques including derivative analysis of the digital volume pulse signal, bandpass filtering or respiratory matrix frequency extraction techniques. By subtracting the systolic reflected wave pulse contour from the digital volume pulse contour, characteristics of the systolic wave pulse can also be identified. The system also provides for the accurate determination of systolic and diastolic blood pressure by using a non-invasive blood pressure monitor to calibrate the relationships between arterial or digital blood pressure and characteristics of the user's digital volume pulse contour. In this way, a wide variety of cardiovascular and respiratory data can be obtained. The system also facilitates the transmittal of such data to the system web site for further analysis, storage, and retrieval purposes. |