Development a polymer-based electronic pulse diagnosis instrument for measuring and analyzing pulse wave velocity

Abstract

A novel pulse-diagnosis system was proposed in this study for measuring pulse wave velocities. In contrast with most conventional mechanical, rigid-type pulse diagnosis instruments such as pressure transducers and microactuators, a conductive elastic polymer was adopted as the sensor material. The soft and formability properties of such material enabled fabricating a flexible pulse diagnosis instrument. In addition, the flexible design was integrated with a contemporary, wrist-type pulse-wave acquisition system to ensure stable measurements. Closely related to the incidence of cardiovascular diseases, pulse wave velocity was analyzed in applications to verify the feasibility of this system. Regarding signal processing, the cun, guan, and chi pulse signals obtained through the data acquisition device were sent to the LabVIEW platform for reconstructing the pulse waveforms. Finally, the results of 20 measured samples were compared and analyzed to evaluate the level of system performance.

A 3D Wrist Pulse Signal Acquisition System for Width Information of Pulse Wave

“…As a result, various parameters, including sensing accuracy, refresh frequency, and sensitivity, have been greatly improved. In recent years, many studies focused on sensor design in TCM, and pulse diagnostic devices have changed from single-probe type [4] and three-probe type [7,33] to five-probe type [6]. Among these studies, some researches [1,6] can measure the pulse waves under different static forces and compute their depth and frequency.…”