Ballistocardiogram: Mechanism and Potential for Unobtrusive Cardiovascular Health Monitoring

Abstract

For more than a century, it has been known that the body recoils each time the heart ejects blood into the arteries. These subtle cardiogenic body movements have been measured with increasingly convenient ballistocardiography (BCG) instruments over the years. A typical BCG measurement shows several waves, most notably the “I”, “J”, and “K” waves. However, the mechanism for the genesis of these waves has remained elusive. We formulated a simple mathematical model of the BCG waveform. We showed that the model could predict the BCG waves as well as physiologic timings and amplitudes of the major waves. The validated model reveals that the principal mechanism for the genesis of the BCG waves is blood pressure gradients in the ascending and descending aorta. This new mechanistic insight may be exploited to allow BCG to realize its potential for unobtrusive monitoring and diagnosis of cardiovascular health and disease.

Cardiovascular Function and Ballistocardiogram: A Relationship Interpreted via Mathematical Modeling

“…The auxiliary functions are independent of the value of the mass M and, as a consequence, they allow for a fair comparison between BCG waveforms reported in different studies. [1,4,24], thereby confirming the capability of the closed-loop model to capture the fundamental cardiovascular mechanisms that give rise to the BCG signal.…”

“…In [23], Wiard et al utilized a three-dimensional finite element model for blood flow in the thoracic aorta to show that the traction at the vessel wall appears of similar magnitude to recorded BCG forces. In [24], Kim et al proposed a simplified model based on the equilibrium forces within the aorta to show that blood pressure gradients in the ascending and descending aorta are major contributors to the BCG signal.…”

Monitoring vital signs over multiplexed radio by near-field coherent sensing

“…The detailed motion waveform analysis can be a cardiogram candidate for arrhythmia and aortic valvular diseases 31 . A real-time waveform recording is shown in Supplementary Fig.…”

Wearable Sensing of Cardiac Timing Intervals From Cardiogenic Limb Vibration Signals

“…We know from studying the waveforms of the BCG that the BCG contains primarily low-frequency components (< 01 Hz.) These low-frequency components reflect the mass of blood pumped out of the heart into the aorta during myocardial contraction, and the movement of the blood through the vascular tree, as described in a recent paper elucidating the mechanism of the BCG signal [27]. …”