Patent ID: 6616613
Filing Date: 2003-09-09
Classification: A61B,G16H,G16Z

Abstract:
A physiological signal monitoring system comprising:(a) a PPG sensor adapted to come into skin contact with a user's body part, for sensing a physiological characteristic of the user and for generating electrical signals which correspond to said physiological characteristic, wherein said physiological characteristic comprises the user's blood volume contour; (b) first processing means operatively coupled to said sensor for receiving and converting said electrical signals into data, for computing a set of physiological parameters on the basis of said data and for conducting analysis of said physiological parameters, said first processing means comprising: (i) filtering means for filtering nonpulsatile and slowly pulsatile signals from the blood volume contour to obtain a filtered blood volume contour; (ii) extraction means for extracting characteristics of the user's aortic reflected wave contour from a volume contour chosen from one of the blood volume contour and the filtered blood volume contour, the characteristics of the user's aortic reflected wave contour being determined in part from a fourth derivative of said volume contour; (iii) computing means for determining the set of physiological parameters based on characteristics of said aortic reflected wave; and, (c) display means coupled to said first processing means for displaying said physiological parameters.