Blood pressure is one of the most important indicators of heart health. Among them, the arm sphygmomanometer is the current standard measurement method, but it can only measure a single data point, and it is easily affected by the current mood of the measurer and inaccurate. Recently, a team from the University of Texas and Texas A&M University developed a graphene-based “electronic tattoo” that can stick to the skin for a long time to continuously monitor blood pressure changes without harming the human body.
Away from the medical facility or at home, while many portable devices have made major breakthroughs in health monitoring, they are not yet ready to step into blood pressure monitoring. The first is that the smart watch is easy to move when worn, and the second is that the technology of the watch to detect blood pressure is not yet mature. For people with darker skin or larger wrists, the results of using light to obtain readings may not be stable; in addition, some symptoms Such as: sudden hypotension, if you do not monitor blood pressure changes at any time, you will be caught off guard.
To this end, a team from the University of Texas and Texas A&M University developed a less invasive device, that is, a graphene sensor wrapped in a sticky material “patterned” on the skin of the wrist, which is basically comfortable and non-sensing Can be worn for a long time without wobbling around.
The test results show that the graphene sensor can accurately monitor arterial blood pressure for more than 300 consecutive minutes. The team hopes to develop the technology into an electronic tattoo for patients to wear for a long time to measure blood pressure changes during sleep, exercise and stress. Other e-tattoos have been designed in the past to monitor the heart of patients with heart disease, vital signs during exercise, or the muscles of patients with neurodegeneration.
Blood pressure monitoring without cuffs would be the “holy grail” in medicine, the researchers say. The new paper was published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
(Source of the first image: University of Texas)
New technological knowledge, updated from time to time