Abstract
BACKGROUND: It is crucial to frequently inspect the proper operation of non-invasive electronic blood pressure monitors in various sites to prevent accidents from inaccurate blood pressure measurements, especially for large-scale hospitals. However, most conventional blood pressure monitor inspection devices are not suitable for such on-site investigation purpose. In this study, we propose a new single-pieced, fully air-driven pseudo blood pressure generator that is suitable for frequent on-site pre-screening tests of the blood pressure monitor by nurses. RESULTS: The proposed model comprises a rigid cylindrical body, two simulated brachial arteries, two air-pumps, an electronic controller, and a pressure sensor. Control algorithm based on polynomial curve fitting was implemented to generate various user-instructed systolic blood pressure and heart-rate conditions automatically. To evaluate the performance and clinical feasibility of the proposed model, various experiments were performed using ten commercial electronic blood pressure monitors. Experimental results demonstrated that the values of the Pearson coefficient between the reference pseudo-blood pressure waveforms and the actually generated pressure waveforms were 0.983, 0.983 and 0.997 at 60, 70 and 80 beats/min, respectively (p < 0.05). Besides, during the experiments using ten commercial blood pressure monitors, the maximum error in average systolic blood pressure was 2.9 mmHg, the maximum standard deviation in average systolic blood pressure was 3.5 mmHg, and the maximum percentage error in average pumping rate was 3.2%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: We expect that the proposed model can give an easy and comprehensive way for frequent on-site investigations of the blood pressure monitors by nurses, and improve the safety of patients with abnormal blood pressure, especially in most large-scale hospitals.