The development of technology allows people to grasp the physical condition more timely and accurately, such as the smart watch or bracelet that many people choose now, which can monitor the heart rate, blood oxygen and even the electrocardiogram.
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However, the body data monitoring effect of smart watches is still very limited, and many body data still need to be obtained with the help of professional instruments, such as measuring blood pressure. While many people with chronic conditions monitor their blood pressure almost daily, this work requires a sphygmomanometer to complete.
Not long ago, Binah.ai, a foreign company running a health platform, added a blood pressure monitoring to the health tool on its app and announced the launch of a new technology that can derive blood pressure data with the help of user facial videos obtained by cameras.
Binah.ai says that monitoring blood pressure through cameras uses a technology called "photoplethography" (PPG), which uses light reflected from a person's face to calculate changes in blood flow through artificial intelligence and deep learning algorithms to derive data.
Image courtesy of Binah.ai
At present, there are several kinds of blood pressure measuring instruments that are widely used: mercury column sphygmomanometers, electronic sphygmomanometers and barometer sphygmomanometers. The principle is basically similar, which is to block the blood flow by the pressure measurement site of the wrist armband, and then make the blood flow again by discharging the gas in the wristband, and the blood pressure data is obtained according to the changes in the sound and vibration of the blood flow when the blood flows again.
In the early years, it was more common to use a mercury column sphygmomanometer using the Kochsonic measurement method, wrapped around the upper arm with a rubber tube sleeve, and the leather sleeve was connected to the pressure gauge with a rubber tube at one end, and the rubber balloon was connected to the other end to insert the stethoscope into it. When measuring, repeated compression of the rubber balloon, the air into the rubber sleeve, will squash the artery of the upper arm, so that the blood flow temporarily stopped, and then slowly lower the blood pressure.
Image from: Three Tops Health Network
During the process of blood pressure reduction, the sound of arterial blood vessels is monitored, and when the pressure inside the rubber sleeve drops to a little lower than the systolic pressure of the heart's blood, the blood will begin to flow and make a sound, and the pressure at this time is systolic pressure (also known as high pressure). Then continue to slowly release the air in the sleeve and listen to the sound of blood flow, when the blood flow is not heard at first, it means that the blood flow has been completely unhindered, and the pressure at this time is diastolic pressure (also known as low pressure).
From the measurement principle, it can be seen that the use of mercury column sphygmomanometer requires a certain degree of subjective judgment of the user, and the data obtained naturally has errors, coupled with the large size of the equipment, and the use of mercury with certain toxicity, so it is gradually replaced by an electronic sphygmomanometer.
Many household electronic sphygmomanometers are relatively small in size, and the blood pressure measurement method is more accurate oscilloscopic method, which determines blood pressure by establishing the relationship between systolic blood pressure, diastolic pressure, average pressure and sleeve pressure shock wave. Since the pulse pressure oscillation wave has a relatively stable correlation with blood pressure, the blood pressure measurement using the oscilloscope principle is more accurate than that of auscultation when the actual home self-test blood pressure is performed.
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Back to Binah.ai's PGG (Photoplethography) technology, which has been applied to some smart wearable devices to monitor data such as heart rate and blood oxygen. And the company says it will evaluate the device using a low-precision device standard, which is what is used at home in the international standard for blood pressure measurement devices.
But whether blood pressure can actually be measured, said Jordana Cohen, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, "This is theoretically feasible, but there is not enough data to indicate how reliable this technology is clinically."
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Although the current relevant data is not sufficient, but hope to achieve the future of this technology to achieve the expected expectations, if you can really use the camera to complete the blood pressure monitoring, do not need to buy other equipment, not only can reduce the cost of measurement, but also let us better grasp our physical condition, it can be said that it is more than one swoop.
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