Soon your mobile phone will be able to measure blood pressure with one touch
It is necessary to conduct various tests on your health, especially regarding blood pressure, because if it is high, there is a risk of developing health problems such as heart or kidney failure.
Until now, we had to go to the pharmacy or directly to the doctor to take one of these measurement tests, but soon you may be able to use a simple mobile phone application.
The app, developed by a team of researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, can make this measurement by taking a variety of readings from an accelerometer, camera, and built-in sensors.
“A lot of people don’t have access to blood pressure monitors, don’t have regular doctor appointments, or don’t even know this is a problem, but they have smartphones,” says Ramakrishna Mukkamala, a biomedical engineer.
Today, blood pressure is measured with an inflatable cuff-like device that squeezes a major artery in the arm, closing it off, before slowly releasing the flow. With each heartbeat, the pressure changes between contraction and relaxation.
Systolic pressure is listed as the highest number in the reading, while diastolic pressure is listed as the lowest.
Mobile phones cannot apply pressure to stop and restart blood flow, as an alternative method, this app uses the force of gravity and the force of finger pressure on the mobile touch screen to calculate pulse pressure.
This allows users to change their hand position to alter blood flow and apply different touches to the mobile phone screen to get accurate pulse pressure readings.
“Because of gravity, there is a change in hydrostatic pressure in the thumb when you raise your hands above the heart, and using the phone’s accelerometer, you can convert that into a relative change in pressure,” says biomedical physician Vishal Damutharan.