Patent ID: 8133184

Claim:
A method for performing an in-vivo calibration of a blood pressure sensor that is associated with a balloon of an in-vivo balloon system, the sensor and balloon being associated such that the sensor is in-vivo when the balloon is in-vivo, the method comprising the steps of: inflating or deflating the balloon so that a gas pressure in the balloon system is indicative of a patient's blood pressure; monitoring the patient's blood pressure by observing the gas pressure through a gas pressure sensor while simultaneously monitoring the patient's blood pressure through the blood pressure sensor and recording a pressure signal generated by a gas pressure sensor and a pressure signal generated by the blood pressure sensor; and using blood pressure readings obtained by monitoring the gas pressure as reference blood pressure measurements and determining a mathematical relationship between blood pressure measurements obtained through the sensor and the reference blood pressure measurements such that future blood pressure measurements obtained through the sensor can be modified according to the mathematical relationship to generate calibrated blood pressure measurements, wherein the step of using includes performing a correlation function between a window of the balloon-based data and the corresponding window of the blood pressure sensor, and performing a time-alignment of the pressure signal generated by the gas pressure sensor and the pressure signal generated by the blood pressure sensor to a point in time corresponding to a peak of the correlation function.