Patent ID: 8147416

Claim:
A method for monitoring a patient's arterial blood pressure with an arterial blood pressure monitor, the method comprising: (a) using implanted electrodes to obtain a first signal indicative of electrical activity of the patient's heart; (b) using an implanted sensor to obtain a second signal indicative of mechanical activity of the patient's heart; (c) transmitting said first and said second signal to said arterial blood pressure monitor, said arterial blood pressure monitor comprising a microcontroller; (d) detecting with said microcontroller a ventricular depolarization and a ventricular repolarization in a portion of the first signal corresponding to a cardiac cycle; (e) detecting with said microcontroller a maximum peak amplitude in a portion of the second signal corresponding to the same cardiac cycle; (f) determining with said microcontroller a time t 1 from the detected ventricular depolarization to the detected maximum peak amplitude in the second signal; (g) determining with said microcontroller a time t 2 from the detected ventricular repolarization to the detected maximum peak amplitude in the second signal; (h) determining with said microcontroller a peak pulse arrival time (PPAT) based on times t 1 and t 2 ; and (i) determining with said microcontroller a value indicative of systolic pressure (SP) based on the PPAT.