Yaoyao Jia and Nanshu Lu of Texas ECE are heading a research team that received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to create paradigm-shifting ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) device based on biomechanics-guided wireless ultrasound sensors.
Accurate, user-friendly ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) is the holy grail of wearable technology, as cardiovascular diseases (CVD) remain the leading cause of death globally, and blood pressure (BP) is a strong predictor of CVD mortality. However, despite over six decades of research and development, current ABPM devices continue to be inaccurate and cumbersome. The objective of this project is to create a paradigm-shifting ABPM device based on biomechanics-guided wireless ultrasound sensors. This wireless ultrasound e-tattoo device will undergo pilot clinical validation on patients with arterial catheter insertions in Dell Children’s Medical Center, using SickbayTM virtual patient monitors for simultaneous data acquisition.
This approach fundamentally differs from previous cuffless continuous noninvasive BP sensing methods that rely on traditional wearables modalities (e.g., photoplethysmography) only capable of measuring relative and indirect hemodynamic features (e.g., pulse waveform shape). Such modalities then require empirical models for continuous noninvasive BP, despite inherent inaccuracies and the need for constant calibration due to limited understanding of the underlying mechanisms. While ultrasound can capture the absolute metrics required for biomechanics-based models, state-of-the-art wearable ultrasound sensors are still constrained by bulky back-end control and data acquisition systems. By integrating the ultrasound e-tattoo with analog-edge-computing of hemodynamic feature extraction, we enable true wireless implementation by dramatically reducing power consumption and sensor size. The proposed wireless ultrasound e-tattoo device has the potential to ultimately replace invasive arterial catheters in clinical spaces while also enabling ambulatory monitoring of a broader outpatient population.
The research team also includes Carlos Mery and Joshua Chang from the Dell Medical School and Hai-Caho Han from The University of Texas at San Antonio.
