Quantitative Ballistocardiography (Q-BCG) for Measurement of Cardiovascular Dynamics

Abstract

In the seventies of the past century ballistocardiography had been thought to be obsolete in cardiology for impossibility of objective calibration. In the present work the quantitative ballistocardiography (Q-BCG) for measurement of systolic force (F) and minute cardiac force (MF) in sitting subject was described. The new principle of piezoelectric transducer enabled to register the force caused by the heart and blood movement, which was not measured before. The calibration proved that the action of the force on the transducer was expressed quantitatively without the amplitude-, time-, and phase deformation. The close relationship of skeletal muscle force and F was proved. The F and MF changed under different physiological conditions (age, partial pressure of oxygen, body weight, skeletal muscle force). It was shown that the systolic force (F) and minute cardiac force (MF) are the physiological parameters neurohumorally regulated similarly as the heart rate or systolic volume.

Low-frequency vibration sensors based on a cascaded gapped cantilever

“…These components of BCG waveform contain important information on the cardiac activity. For example, it could be used for measurement of systolic force and minute cardiac force [16].…”

Seismocardiogram and Ballistocardiogram Sensing

“…The main technological developments that took place since the beginning of ballistocardiography and seismocardiography measurement are related with mechanical contact and non-contact based sensing implementations. Mechanical contact BCG and SCG sensing systems include static charge-sensitive-beds (Lindqvist, Pihlajamäki, Jalonen, Laaksonen, & Alihanka, 1996;Alihanka, Vaahtoranta, & Saarikivi, 1981), in chair piezoelectric force sensors for BCG monitoring (Trefnyl et al, 2011), in chair and wheelchair BCG monitoring based on ferroelectret films (Koivistoinen, Junnila, Värri, & Kööbi, 2004;Postolache, Girão, Postolache, & Pereira, 2007), and accelerometers and MEMS accelerometers for SCG monitoring (Salerno & Zanetti, 1990;Zanetti, Poliac, & Crow, 1991).…”