Towards the standardization of ballistocardiography systems for J-peak timing measurement

• Published in: Measurement : journal of the International Measurement Confederation 2014-12, Vol.58, p.310-316
• Main Authors: Gomez-Clapers, Joan, Serra-Rocamora, Albert, Casanella, Ramon, Pallas-Areny, Ramon
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acquisition system; Ballistocardiogram; Ballistocardiography; Batecs; Biomedical instrumentation; Cardiologia; Circulació; Ciències de la salut; Cor; Enginyeria electrònica; Hemodinàmica; Instrumentació i mesura; Mesurament; Pressió sanguínia; Sang; Standardization; Àrees temàtiques de la UPC
• ISSN: 0263-2241; 1873-412X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.measurement.2014.09.003

•Several cardiovascular parameters can be assessed from the BCG J peak timing.•There are no consensusstandards for BCG acquisition systems.•The uncertainty required for the J peak measurement has been found to be 2ms.•Minimal performance requirements for BCG acquisition systems are reported. There is a growing interest in accurately measuring the timing of the J peak of the ballistocardiogram (BCG) in order to obtain cardiovascular function markers non-invasively, especially in modern home healthcare applications. In this paper we have studied the effect that some common uncertainty sources have in the time measurement of the J peak. This is a necessary step towards the standardization of modern ballistocardiography systems equivalent to that available for ECG systems. We conclude that, to reduce J peak time uncertainty below the measured intrinsic uncertainty of about ±2ms, the minimal bandwidth should be from 1.5Hz to 22.5Hz; the sampling frequency can be decreased up to 50Hz when using cubic spline interpolation; 5 bits are required to quantify the signal, and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) should be over 40dB and 3dB respectively.