A blood pressure measurement cuff includes a belt-shaped body and a ring having a temporary fastening structure that allows a region continuous with the outer circumferential end of the belt-shaped body to be pulled through the ring away from the measurement site during attachment and suppresses a case in which the region continuous with the outer circumferential end of the belt-shaped body is pulled back through the ring by elastic force of the measurement site. The temporary fastening structure includes a sleeve member fitted around a second side of the ring for pivoting around the second side. The sleeve member includes a first region that allows the outer cloth to slide and a second region having a projection that applies friction to the outer cloth in that order from an upstream side toward a downstream side with respect to a direction in which the belt-shaped body is pulled.

An improvement in performance of a bag-shaped structure formed of an elastomer-made sheet can be achieved. Provided is a bag-shaped structure including one or more sheets that contain a thermoplastic elastomer and are uniform in composition, wherein the one or more sheets comprise a plurality of regions that are different in 100% Modulus. Provided also is a method of manufacturing a bag-shaped structure, including heating a region of one or more sheets that contain a thermoplastic elastomer and are uniform in composition, to a temperature that is equal to or higher than a crystallization temperature of the thermoplastic elastomer and is lower than a melting point of the thermoplastic elastomer to increase a 100% Modulus at the region relative to another region.

An electronic sphygmomanometer includes a cuff including an air bladder, a pressure sensor, an artery volume sensor, and a computation device. The computation device includes an inner pressure control section, a volume sensor signal receive section for receiving a pulse wave signal detected by the artery volume sensor, a pressure sensor signal receive section for receiving a pressure pulse wave signal superimposed on the inner pressure of the air bladder and detected by the pressure sensor, a judgment section for choosing either the pulse wave signal or the pressure pulse wave signal as a signal for calculating pulse rate of the patient during a period when the inner pressure of the air bladder is increased and/or decreased by the inner pressure control section, and a pulse rate calculation section for calculating pulse rate of the patient based on the pulse wave signal and the signal chosen by the judgment section.

A blood pressure monitoring device configured to attach and supply air to a blood pressure cuff can include a housing having an interior, a port configured to enable fluid communication between the interior of the housing and an interior of the blood pressure cuff, and an air intake configured to allow ambient air to enter the interior of the housing and further configured to inhibit liquids from entering the interior of the housing. The air intake can define a non-linear passageway for ambient air to enter the interior of the housing. The housing can have a first side and a first inner wall. The air intake can be defined by a first opening in the first side and a second opening in the first inner wall. The first opening can be not aligned with the second opening.

Highly accurate blood pressure estimation based on a circulatory organ-related feature amount can be performed. A blood pressure estimation device includes a blood pressure estimation unit configured to acquire a circulatory organ-related feature amount that is a feature amount related to a state of a circulatory organ and changes in accordance with pulsation of a heart and to calculate a blood pressure value from the circulatory organ-related feature amount, and a reference blood pressure measurement unit including a sound wave detection unit configured to detect Korotkoff sound generated in accordance with the pulsation, the reference blood pressure measurement unit being configured to measure a reference blood pressure value by using the Korotkoff sound. The blood pressure estimation unit includes a feature amount acquisition unit configured to acquire the circulatory organ-related feature amount.

Methods and apparatus are provided for assessing endothelial function in a mammal. In certain embodiments the methods involve using a cuff to apply pressure to an artery in a subject to determine a plurality of baseline values for a parameter related to endothelial function as a function of applied pressure (P.sub.m); b) applying a stimulus to the subject; and applying external pressure P.sub.m to the artery to determine a plurality of stimulus-effected values for the parameter related to endothelial function as a function of applied pressure (P.sub.m); where the baseline values are determined from measurements made when said mammal is not substantially effected by said stimulus and differences in said baseline values and said stimulus-effected values provide a measure of endothelial function in said mammal.

Blood pressure detection apparatuses and methods for detecting a blood pressure of a user are described comprising optical sensors/detectors and a force sensor and, in some embodiments, comprising only a force sensor, measuring force applied by a finger. Blood pressure is measured by applying an increasing (or decreasing) force or pressure with a finger of the user on at least the force sensor, which, in some embodiments, may be a plurality of increasing pressure steps, each step being held within a predetermined acceptable pressure/force tolerance range for a predetermined hold time, and measuring the force applied by the finger and, in some embodiments, optically measuring the blood in a vessel in the finger relating to the applied pressure/force. Feedback (visual, haptic, sound) of the applied pressure is provided to the user.

A method is provided for determining blood pressure for a subject using a sphygmomanometer. The method includes: measuring an oscillometric cuff pressure waveform of the subject using the sphygmomanometer; representing the measured waveform with a physical model accounting for mechanics of the cuff, an artery and coupling between the cuff and the artery; determining the model unknowns from the measured waveform; and determining blood pressure for the subject using the determined model.

A clamping device for applying pressure to a human limb. The device comprises a first rigid part having a first inner profile and a second rigid part generally facing the first inner profile. The first and second inner profiles are arranged to apply clamping pressure against the human limb when the device is in the clamped position and thereby apply clamping pressure to blood vessels in the limb. The device further comprises a coupling portion that couples the first and second rigid parts together while allowing relative movement of the first and second parts between a clamped position and an unclamped position. An expandable element is arranged at least partly along at least one of the first inner profile and the second inner profile. The expandable element is inflatable to apply additional pressure to the limb, and deflatable to reduce the additional pressure, when the clamping device is positioned on the limb. The device further comprises at least one sensing component.

The invention is an electronic sphygmomanometer that dynamically calibrates for a real-time standard blood pressure reference value, which is determined based on the objective condition of human blood pressure fluctuation influenced by various factors such as age, date and time of measurement, and establishes age/blood pressure reference value, date/blood pressure reference value and time/blood pressure reference. The value database, or through mathematical operations, obtains the real-time standard blood pressure reference value under the specific conditions of the subject's age, test date, and test time, and calibrates it as a benchmark for judging the abnormality state of the real-time blood pressure measurement value. This improves the ability of the sphygmomanometer in producing an accurate judgement of the subject's blood pressure, and reduces the margin of error for false positive tests or false negative tests.