Robust ballistocardiogram acquisition for home monitoring

The ballistocardiogram (BCG) measures the reaction of the body to cardiac ejection forces, and is an effective, non-invasive means of evaluating cardiovascular function. A simple, robust method is presented for acquiring high-quality, repeatable BCG signals from a modified, commercially available sc...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physiological measurement 2009-02, Vol.30 (2), p.169-185
Main Authors: Inan, O T, Etemadi, M, Wiard, R M, Giovangrandi, L, Kovacs, G T A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Ballistocardiography - instrumentation
Ballistocardiography - standards
Electrocardiography
Equipment Design
Female
Heart Failure - diagnosis
Heart Failure - physiopathology
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Models, Biological
Monitoring, Physiologic - instrumentation
Monitoring, Physiologic - standards
Outpatients
Reproducibility of Results
Valsalva Maneuver
Weights and Measures
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The ballistocardiogram (BCG) measures the reaction of the body to cardiac ejection forces, and is an effective, non-invasive means of evaluating cardiovascular function. A simple, robust method is presented for acquiring high-quality, repeatable BCG signals from a modified, commercially available scale. The measured BCG waveforms for all subjects qualitatively matched values in the existing literature and physiologic expectations in terms of timing and IJ amplitude. Additionally, the BCG IJ amplitude was shown to be correlated with diastolic filling time for a subject with premature atrial contractions, demonstrating the sensitivity of the apparatus to beat-by-beat hemodynamic changes. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the BCG was estimated using two methods, and the average SNR over all subjects was greater than 12 for both estimates. The BCG measurement was shown to be repeatable over 50 recordings taken from the same subject over a three week period. This approach could allow patients at home to monitor trends in cardiovascular health.
ISSN:0967-3334
1361-6579
DOI:10.1088/0967-3334/30/2/005