In a world where cardiovascular disease still ranks highest among all causes of mortality worldwide, a group of University of Pittsburgh researchers has presented a novel method of blood pressure monitoring. Their innovative smartphone application could significantly improve access to hypertension screening in underserved communities, addressing a critical gap in healthcare accessibility.
The study, published in Scientific Reports, demonstrates how common smartphones can be transformed into pulse pressure monitors without additional hardware. This development could be a game-changer in the fight against systolic hypertension, which affects over 4 billion adults worldwide.
Harnessing Smartphone Sensors for Health
Professor Ramakrishna Mukkamala, a lead researcher from Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering, saw cellphones as pervasive health instruments with great promise.
“The most significant thing you can do to reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease is to lower high blood pressure through lifestyle changes,” Mukkamala explained. “But in underserved populations, many people don’t have access to blood pressure cuffs, regular doctor’s appointments, or even know it’s a problem. But they do have smartphones.”
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The app makes use of touch sensors, front cameras, and accelerometers embedded right inside a smartphone. Users perform a simple hand-raising motion while holding their phone, allowing the app to measure pulse pressure – the difference between systolic and diastolic blood pressure.
Why it matters: This technology could democratize blood pressure monitoring, enabling individuals in remote or low-resource settings to track their cardiovascular health regularly without expensive medical equipment.
Overcoming Technical Challenges
This technique took a long time to develop. The lack of force-sensing capabilities in cell phones presented a challenge for the study team, which included graduate student Vishaal Dhamotharan. Their resolution? Utilizing gravity.
“Because of gravity, there’s a hydrostatic pressure change in your thumb when you raise your hands up above your heart,” Dhamotharan explained. “Using the phone’s accelerometer, you’re able to convert that into the relative change in pressure.”
The Significance of Pulse Pressure
Although monitoring for cardiovascular illness doesn’t usually center on pulse pressure, the study did show that it is crucial for identifying hypertension. The project’s former postdoctoral researcher, Dr. Céderick Landry, an assistant professor at the University of Sherbrooke, stated, “We showed that if you only have access to pulse pressure, it’s still very correlated with hypertension.”
Bridging the Healthcare Gap
It is impossible to overestimate the potential effects of this technology on marginalized communities. Heart disease is 40% more common in rural areas of the United States than in urban areas. In places where access to healthcare resources is restricted, this app may be an essential tool for treating and keeping an eye on high blood pressure.
“This app would be really useful in low-income settings where people may not even have existing access to blood pressure tools,” Dhamotharan said. “Being able to measure blood pressure more frequently would allow an individual to track any significant changes in blood pressure, monitor for hypertension, and be able to manage their conditions with that knowledge.”
Looking Ahead: Challenges and Opportunities
While the research showed encouraging results, with the app giving pulse pressure values within 8 mmHg of standard cuff readings, there’s still work to be done. To increase the technology’s accuracy and usefulness, the team is concentrating on making more advancements in it.
The head of the bioengineering department and collaborator, Dr. Sanjeev Shroff, believes this is a big step toward the “holy grail” of blood pressure monitoring: a cuffless device that doesn’t need outside calibration.
The head of the bioengineering department and collaborator, Dr. Sanjeev Shroff, believes this is a big step toward the “holy grail” of blood pressure monitoring: a cuffless device that doesn’t need outside calibration.
