Patent ID: 7635338

Claim:
A method for processing continuous pressure-related signals derivable from locations inside or outside a human or animal body or body cavity, comprising the steps of obtaining samples of said signals at specific intervals, and converting thus sampled pressure signals into pressure-related digital data with a time reference, wherein for selectable time sequence windows the method comprises the further steps of: a) identifying from said digital data single pressure waves related to cardiac beat-induced pressure waves, b) identifying from said digital data pressure waves related to artifacts or a combination of artifacts and cardiac beat-induced pressure waves, c) computing parameters selected from one or more of the list of: c1) single pressure wave (SW.x)-related parameters during individual of said time sequence windows, c2) delta single pressure wave (ΔSW.x)-related parameters between subsequent single pressure waves (n−1;n) within said time sequence windows, said subsequent single pressure waves (n−1;n) representing a current single pressure wave SW[n].x in time n subtracted from the previous SW[n−1].x in time n−1 of said individual time sequence window, c3) time sequence (TS.x)-related parameters of said single pressure waves during individual of said time sequence windows, c4) delta time sequence (ΔTS.x)-related parameters between subsequent time sequence windows (n−1;n) of said individual time sequence windows, said subsequent time sequence windows (n−1;n) representing a current time sequence window TS[n].x in time n subtracted from the previous TS [n−1].x in time n−1 of said individual time sequence window, d) determining criteria for thresholds and ranges of parameters selected from one or more of the list of: d1) single pressure wave (SW.x)-related parameters of said single pressure waves during said time sequence windows, d2) delta single pressure wave (ΔSW.x)-related parameters between subsequent of said single pressure waves during said time sequence windows, d3) time sequence (TS.x)-related parameters of said single pressure waves during said time sequence windows, d4) delta time sequence (ΔTS.x)-related parameters between subsequent time sequence windows, and e) using said criteria for thresholds and ranges in step d) to provide optimal differentiating between single pressure waves caused by cardiac beat-induced pressure waves and pressure waves caused by artifact-induced pressure waves or a combination thereof.