An implantable optical blood pressure sensor based on pulse transit time

• Published in: Biomedical microdevices Vol. 15; no. 1; pp. 73 - 81
• Main Authors: Fiala, Jens, Bingger, Philipp, Ruh, Dominic, Foerster, Katharina, Heilmann, Claudia, Beyersdorf, Friedhelm, Zappe, Hans, Seifert, Andreas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01.02.2013; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animals; Biological and Medical Physics; Biomedical engineering; Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering; Biophysics; Biosensors; Blood pressure; Blood Pressure Determination - instrumentation; Calibration; Carotid Arteries - physiology; Engineering; Engineering Fluid Dynamics; Female; Nanotechnology; Optical Devices; Optics; Prostheses and Implants; Pulse Wave Analysis - instrumentation; Reproducibility of Results; Swine; Long-term monitoring; Photoplethysmography; Blood pressure; Optical sensors; Implantable sensors; Pulse transit time
• ISSN: 1387-2176; 1572-8781
• DOI: 10.1007/s10544-012-9689-9

An implantable sensor system for long-term monitoring of blood pressure is realized by taking advantage of the correlation between pulse transit time and blood pressure. The highly integrated implantable sensor module, fabricated using MEMS technologies, uses 8 light emitting diodes (LEDs) and a photodetector on chip level. The sensor is applied to large blood vessels, such as the carotid or femoral arteries, and allows extravascular measurement of highly-resolved photoplethysmograms. In addition, spectrophotometric approaches allow measurement of hemoglobin derivatives. For the calibration of blood pressure measurements, the sensor system has been successfully implemented in animal models.