United States: A small patch which almost about the size of a postage stamp, can now really help people keep track of their blood pressure all the time. This patch, made by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, has been tested on over 100 patients and worked really well. The results were shared in a medical journal on November 20.
As reported by the HealthDay, Normal blood pressure is 120/80 and it helps to ward off most ailments including heart diseases, stroke, kidney failure, dementia and loss of vision hence many patients with high blood pressure use a cuff and meter gadget to monitor their levels.
‘Cuff-based measurements which give only point estimates of BP may overlook such patterns,’ said co-author Sai Zhou, a recent doctorate from the University of California San Diego, Jacobs School of Engineering.
“Our wearable patch captures a constant stream of blood pressure waveform data, and thus can provide this information and show detailed dynamics of blood pressure changes,” he also said in the university release.
It is a thin and flexible patch which is easily applied to the skin and is placed on the part of the forearm. Miniature sensors in it that emit and capture ultrasonic signals to monitor fluctuations in the bore of blood vessels. These changes are then translated into blood pressure numbers.
The developers said the patch offers accuracy on par with the traditional pneumatic bp cuff and even a invasive arterial bp cuff inserted into a patient’s artery in intensive care units and operating rooms to provide constant monitoring of pressure.
Studies with four post-surgical patients in ICU and 21 who underwent cardiac catheterization, values obtained from the patch were almost similar to that that from the arterial line. That, researchers said, can turn the method into a non-invasive one.”
Avid cyclists have tried the new patch through cycling, lifting an arm or a leg, taking a nap, having a meal, and moving from a sitting to a standing position. In all cases, readings were very comparable to those obtained using blood pressure cuffs.