Patent ID: 6440079
Filing Date: 2002-08-27
Classification: A61B

Abstract:
An apparatus for measuring a superior-and-inferior-limb blood-pressure index of a living subject, comprising:a first blood-pressure measuring device which includes at least one first inflatable cuff adapted to be wound around an inferior limb of the subject and measures a first blood pressure of the inferior limb; a second blood-pressure measuring device which includes a second inflatable cuff adapted to be wound around a superior limb of the subject and measures a second blood pressure of the superior limb; a blood-pressure-relating-information obtaining device which iteratively obtains, from the subject, a piece of blood-pressure-relating information changing in relation with a change of a blood pressure of the subject; a blood-pressure-change-value determining means for determining a change value of the blood pressure of the subject between a first time when the first blood pressure is measured by the first blood-pressure measuring device and a second time when the second blood pressure is measured by the second blood-pressure measuring device, based on a first piece of blood-pressure-relating information obtained by the blood-pressure-relating-information obtaining device at the first time and a second piece of blood-pressure-relating information obtained by the blood-pressure-relating-information obtaining device at the second time; a corrected-blood-pressure determining means for determining, based on the change value determined by the blood-pressure-change-value determining means, one of the first and second blood pressures to a corrected blood pressure that would have been measured at one of the first and second times that corresponds to the other of the first and second blood pressures; and a blood-pressure-index determining means for determining the superior-and-inferior-limb blood-pressure index, based on the corrected blood pressure determined by the corrected-blood-pressure determining means and said other of the first and second blood pressures that has not been corrected by the corrected-blood-pressure determining means.