A New Blood Pulsation Simulator Platform Incorporating Cardiovascular Physiology for Evaluating Radial Pulse Waveform

Abstract

To meet the need for “standard” testing system for wearable blood pressure sensors, this study intends to develop a new radial pulsation simulator that can generate age-dependent reference radial artery pressure waveforms reflecting the physiological characteristics of human cardiovascular system. To closely duplicate a human cardiovascular system, the proposed simulator consists of a left ventricle simulation module, an aorta simulation module, a peripheral resistance simulation module, and a positive/negative pressure control reservoir module. Simulating physiologies of blood pressure, the compliance chamber in the simulator can control arterial stiffness to produce age-dependent pressure waveforms. The augmentation index was used to assess the pressure waveforms generated by the simulator. The test results show that the simulator can generate and control radial pressure waveforms similar to human pulse signals consisting of early systolic pressure, late systolic pressure, and dicrotic notch. Furthermore, the simulator’s left ventricular pressure-volume loop results demonstrate that the simulator exhibits mechanical characteristics of the human cardiovascular system. The proposed device can be effectively used as a “standard” radial artery pressure simulator to calibrate the wearable sensor’s measurement characteristics and to develop more advanced sensors. The simulator is intended to serve as a platform for the development, performance verification, and calibration of wearable blood pressure sensors. It will contribute to the advancement of the wearable blood pressure sensor technology, which enables real-time monitoring of users’ radial artery pressure waveforms and eventually predicting cardiovascular diseases.

The Correlation Study of Cun, Guan and Chi Position Based on Wrist Pulse Characteristics

“…The time between the starting point of pulse wave diagram and the main wave isthmus. t 3 The time from the starting point of the pulse wave diagram to the peak of the wave before the heavy pulse corresponds to the arterial tension, resistance state and pulse reflection velocity. t 4 The time between the starting point of the pulse wave diagram and the descending isthmus, which corresponds to the systolic phase of the left ventricle.…”

“…Modern medical research indicates that the wrist pulse signals are mainly produced by the contraction and relaxation of the heart, and also are affected by the blood movement and the change of the diameter of blood vessels, making them effective for analyzing both cardiac and noncardiac diseases [2]. The pressure of the radial artery not only plays a role in cardiovascular function assessment [3], but also reflects biological signals that reveal valuable internal physiological information about the entire body [4,5].…”

Portable Interactive Pulse Tactile Recorder and Player System

“…By controlling the viscosity and motion of the MR fluids with user-defined magnetic fields, arbitrary pulse waveforms were generated. Yang et al [ 23 ] built a radial pulsation simulator using stepping motors and pistons to generate radial artery pressure waveforms reflecting the physiological characteristics of a human cardiovascular system. By carefully controlling the inflow of the fluid, the liquid-driven pulsation simulator created various standard pulse waveforms based on the cardiovascular conditions.…”

Design and Evaluation of Enhanced Mock Circulatory Platform Simulating Cardiovascular Physiology for Medical Palpation Training

“…Moreover, even though they were designed to reproduce pulsations and anatomical structures, they cannot reproduce blood pressure waveforms in a controllable manner. To improve this, cardiovascular simulators of some previous studies reproduce the blood pressure waveform by regulating the input waveform of the ventricular pump and the resistance valve of the vein [12][13][14][15][16]. Among these, it tried to reproduce the change in stiffness of the vascular wall by pressing the fluid with an air spring to control compliance, but did not actually change the compliance of the vascular wall [16].…”

“…To improve this, cardiovascular simulators of some previous studies reproduce the blood pressure waveform by regulating the input waveform of the ventricular pump and the resistance valve of the vein [12][13][14][15][16]. Among these, it tried to reproduce the change in stiffness of the vascular wall by pressing the fluid with an air spring to control compliance, but did not actually change the compliance of the vascular wall [16]. However, there is no detailed study on adjusting the compliance of the blood vascular wall.…”