WO2025110919A1

WO2025110919A1 - Blood pressure monitor in sleeve

Info

Publication number: WO2025110919A1
Application number: PCT/SG2023/050775
Authority: WO
Inventors: Su Lin CAROL GOH; Kai Hock CHEOK; Lai Ching HELEN HO
Original assignee: Meiban International Pte Ltd
Current assignee: Meiban International Pte Ltd
Priority date: 2023-11-22
Filing date: 2023-11-22
Publication date: 2025-05-30
Anticipated expiration: 2026-05-22

Abstract

A portable and lightweight blood pressure monitoring device capable of wirelessly connect to external device, such as a smartphone or portable tablet device to measure and track blood pressure. The device includes a cuff that can be integrated permanently within the sleeve portion of a garment shirt or it can be attached and detached from the shirt sleeve using available securing means such as Velcro, zipper, button, slits, magnet, buckle-type etc. The cuff has an inflatable air bladder formed integrally, rectangular in shape, having two sides and can be secured to the sleeve of the garment shirt via the above mentioned securing means. Air tubes are positioned within the cuff that links to the inflatable air bladder, an exhaust valve, pump, power supply and motor, a flexible circuitry that includes a pressure sensor, CPU (Central Processing Unit), a memory cum transmitter for wirelessly transmitting blood pressure data to external device.

Description

BLOOD PRESSURE MONITOR IN SLEEVE

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to blood pressure monitor, and in particular a portable blood pressure monitor that can be integrated permanently within the garment shirt or it is attachable or detachable from the shirt’s sleeve, and wherein is able to connect wirelessly with an external device to measure blood pressure.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Blood pressure is one of the useful indicators in determining the health of a person. In recent years, not only do the systolic and the diastolic blood pressure in a blood pressure reading are widely recognised as useful indicators for healthcare monitoring, but also the pulse or heart rate of the person is measured at the same time in order to identify any abnormalities in the heart.

As the society is getting more affluent and health conscious, including having an aging population for some societies, many people today might want to monitor and track their blood pressure on a daily basis, getting it automatically analyse, if possible, in order to spot early trends that might indicate possible health complications. With early detection, the user can then take the necessary actions to lower the blood pressure through various means, including changes in diet and lifestyle. To measure blood pressure of a person, the conventional way in a medical clinical setting, a sphygmomanometer is used to measure the blood pressure, typically consisting of an inflatable rubber cuff which is applied to the upper arm and read off via a mercury graduated scale to determine the systolic and diastolic blood pressure. With technological advances, the conventional sphygmomanometer has been replaced by digital sphygmomanometer or table-top blood pressure monitor for home use. Besides having blood pressure monitoring at home makes it easy and convenient for the user to have his/her blood pressure taken at the comfort of his/her own home, eliminating the need to always have to go to a medical clinic to measure the blood pressure. Moreover, the digital sphygmomanometer or home-based table- top blood pressure monitor that uses the inflatable cuff tends to be more accurate in measuring blood pressure of the user at that particular time. Sensor-based wearable devices use more complex algorithm and electronics to aid and to calibrate the blood pressure measurement of the user.

However, with increasingly more people travelling and shuttling around different countries, there is a need to have a more mobile and portable form of digital blood pressure monitor system for the users to measure their blood pressure on the go and at demand. At present in the prior art, there are patented models available which can be summarised in the Table shown below:

Hence the present invention aims to address the current gaps or the downside issues mentioned in the Table above. The present invention disclosed a digital sphygmomanometer with two (2) options available, wherein it has a housing unit that is slim and light enough to be integrated within the sleeve of a garment shirt permanently or can be attached and detached from the sleeve of the garment shirt using available securing means such as Velcro, grommet, zipper, button, slits, magnet, buckle-type etc. For the first (1^st) option to be able to be integrated within the sleeve of a garment, the present invention involves a garment manufacturer to have the cuff portion of the digital sphygmomanometer to be woven onto the sleeve portion of the garment such that the digital sphygmomanometer is integrated within the sleeve as part of the garment. Since it is integrated within the garment, the present invention has to be certified to meet the current available minimum waterresistance standards such as IPX7 certification as well as be able to withstand a certain number of machine washes. For the second (2^nd) option disclosed, the present invention also involves a garment shirt manufacturer to have the securing means being incorporated on one side of the sleeve such that the digital sphygmomanometer has the flexibility to be able to be attach or detach from the sleeve of a garment shirt, hence making it flexible for the user to use it at his/her own convenience.

The present invention for this digital sphygmomanometer is able to wirelessly transmit blood pressure data to an external device such as mobile phone or portable tablet. The present invention has a cuff that has an inflatable air bladder formed integrally therein, with the cuff being substantially rectangular in shape, having two sides and can be secured to the sleeve of the garment shirt via the securing means mentioned earlier. Moreover, one or more tubes are positioned within the cuff that links to the inflatable air bladder, an exhaust valve, a pump, power supply and a motor, a flexible circuitry that includes a pressure sensor, a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a memory cum a transmitter for wirelessly transmitting blood pressure data to the external device, using wireless technologies such as Bluetooth technology, wireless networking using WIFI or via other current available wireless technology. The hardware items mentioned earlier are all miniaturised and customized to be able to provide the necessary power and output to measure the blood pressure of the user. Moreover, having it miniaturised and having a flexible circuitry aid in integrating it permanently within the sleeve of the shirt or can be in a form factor that makes it easily secured to the user’s sleeve of the shirt such that it can be attached or detached without much hassle. The digital sphygmomanometer can be wirelessly charged using current available wireless charging technologies.

For wireless connection with the external device, the user can then download the relevant application (or “app” in short and shall be used throughout the writeup here) onto his/her smart device (e.g., smart phone, portable tablet) so that he/she can control the digital sphygmomanometer wirelessly. After downloading the app onto his/her smart device, the user would first have to setup and install the app on his/her device, which also include some form of wireless pairing with the digital sphygmomanometer. This is then followed by the profile set-up whereby the user would then need to initiate a one-time set-up to input his / her profile details inside the app. Such profile details would include information about the user’s particulars such as his / her name, gender, height and weight, email address, his/her dietary preferences, blood pressure readings, health condition, medical history, etc. This will enable the app to aid in tracking and monitoring the health status of the user. Moreover, the app can also be configured to sound an alarm and alert the user to remind him/her to measure his/her blood pressure at a certain time. Moving forward, the embodiment of the present invention has the following key advantages that are namely as follows:

1. Ease of measuring blood pressure for the user on the go and on demand at anywhere and anytime;

2. Portable and lightweight with the flexibility to be attached and detached from the sleeve of a shirt, thus making it easier for the user to wear it anytime even when travelling;

3. Provides the user with the option and flexibility to either a. have the digital blood pressure monitor being permanently embedded on the sleeve of the garment shirt, or b. the option to be able to attach and detach from the sleeve of a garment shirt using securing means such as Velcro, grommet, zipper, button, slits, magnet, buckle-type etc.

4. Ability to download and use a software app to wirelessly connect to the digital sphygmomanometer, which includes programming and customising the user’s profile and can track and monitor the health of the user.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The drawings attached here are to aid comprehension of the description of the invention here. The drawings are not to scale and they are to be used for merely illustrating the principles and concepts of the invention only.

To aid in comprehension of the invention, the drawings are separated into the various Figures as described below:

Figure 1 illustrates an overall perspective view of the various key components and functions for the embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 2 illustrates the wireless connectivity of the embodiment of the present invention with external devices such as mobile smart phone, portable tablet etc. Figure 3 and Figure 4 illustrates the different ways to attach and detach from a garment shirt for the embodiment of the present invention.

Reference numbers

1 Cuff

2 Slot

3 Air Bladder

4 Air Tube

5 Pump

6 Exhaust Valve

7 Pressure Sensor

8 Motor

9 Memory

10 CPU (Central Processing Unit)

11 Power Supply

12 Transmitter

13 User Shirt Sleeve

14 Wireless Connection

15 Mobile Device (e.g., smartphone)

16 Embedded Magnets

17 Buttons

18 Slits

19 Buckle Strap

20 Zipper

21 Velcro

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE PRESENT

INVENTION

In the following description, details are provided to describe the embodiment of the application. It shall be apparent to the person skilled in the art, however, that the embodiments may be practiced without such details.

The embodiment of the present invention relates to blood pressure monitor that can be either be integrated permanently within the garment shirt or it can also be able to have the option to attach and detach from the sleeve of a garment shirt, and the blood pressure measurement is taken from an external device that is connected wirelessly to the embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 1 illustrates an overall perspective view of the various key components and functions for the embodiment of the present invention. It illustrates the configuration of the digital sphygmomanometer. As illustrated in Figure 1 , the digital sphygmomanometer consists of the cuff 1 that consists of a slot 2, an inflatable air bladder 3 that is connected by an air tube 4 that also links to the pump 5, an exhaust valve 6 as well as a pressure sensor 7. The pressure sensor 7 is to detect the pressure in the air bladder 3 that will aid in the blood pressure measurement. The cuff 1 has a motor 8 that is controlled by the CPU (Central Processing Unit) denoted as 10 in Figure 1. There is also a memory 9 that serves to store programmed functions that will link up with the CPU 10 to perform predetermined operation for the rest of the components within the cuff 1. The CPU 10 is powered by a power supply (e.g., a battery) denoted as 11 that can be wirelessly charged using available wireless charging technologies. In addition, the CPU 10 is connected to a transmitter 12 that is able to link up wirelessly to an external device such as a mobile smartphone or portable tablet denoted as 15 in Figure 2 via wireless connection 14 such as Bluetooth technology, wireless networking using WIFI or via other current available wireless technology. The pressure sensor 7, Central Processing Unit (CPU) 10, memory 9 and the transmitter 12 can be miniaturised via a flexible circuitry. The start/stop operation of the present invention is controlled using the external device such as the mobile smartphone or portable tablet via a software application (or “app” in short and shall be used throughout here) that can be downloaded and installed onto the smartphone or portable tablet. The digital sphygmomanometer can be integrated permanently within the user shirt sleeve 13 as illustrated in Figure 2 or can be attach and detach from existing garment shirt as illustrated in Figure 3 and Figure 4.

For the cuff 1 to be able to operate, the power supply 11 needs to be sufficiently charged up. To start using the digital sphygmomanometer wirelessly, the user would first need have the cuff 1 on his upper arm, which in this case we are using the cuff 1 that is embedded or integrated within the user shirt sleeve 13 as illustrated in Figure 2. Next the user would then need to pair up wirelessly with the digital sphygmomanometer using his/her external device such as smart phone or portable tablet denoted as 15 in Figure 2. Once paired up, the user can then control the digital sphygmomanometer using the app on the smart phone or tablet. The user can press the start/stop button on the app and the CPU 10 will then send a signal to activate the motor 8 which in turn will actuate the pump 5 to pump air via air tube 4 to inflate the air bladder 3. The exhaust valve 6 serves to open and close to maintain the pressure in the air bladder 3 or to discharge the air from the air bladder 3. The pressure sensor 7 detects the pressure n the air bladder 3 and outputs signal corresponding to the detected pressure to the CPU 10. Hence this entire process of inflating and deflating the air bladder 3 is being programmed and controlled by the CPU 10 that also has algorithm programmed to calculate the blood pressure measurement value of the user. The blood pressure measurement values are then transmitted via the transmitter 12 to the external device such as smart phone or portable tablet denoted as 15 in Figure 2. By using the app on his / her smart phone or portable tablet, the user can read the systolic and diastolic blood pressure as well as the pulse or heart rate of the user on the smart phone or portable tablet itself.

Figure 3 and Figure 4 illustrates the other option of having the cuff 1 to be able to be attach and detach from the sleeve of the garment shirt using current available securing means. Examples include those depicted in Figure 2 such as using embedded magnets denoted as 16, buttons 17 as well as via the use of slits 18. Others include using buckle strap denoted as 19, zipper 20 and Velcro 21 as illustrated in Figure 3. The user can first attach the cuff 1 to his / her shirt sleeve 13 using any of those securing means illustrated in Figure 2 and 3, followed by having the cuff 1 to be wrapped around the upper arm before slotting the cuff 1 through the slot 2, and then finally having it fastened together via Velcro 21 where necessary. This will enable the digital sphygmomanometer to have a secure tight fit catered for different arm sizes.

While what has been described hereinabove is the preferred embodiment of the invention, those skilled in the art will understand that numerous modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. The embodiments described herein are meant to be illustrative only and should not be taken as limiting the invention, which can be expressly set forth in the following claims.

Claims

CLAIMS What is claimed is:

1. A blood pressure monitor comprising of:

(a) a cuff that can be integrated permanently within the sleeve portion of a garment shirt, and wherein

(b) the cuff comprises of an inflatable air bladder and wherein

(c) one or more air tubes are positioned within the cuff and links the inflatable air bladder to a pump that pumps air into the inflatable air bladder; and

(d) an exhaust valve that serves to open and close to maintain the pressure in the air bladder or to discharge the air from the air bladder; and

(e) a pressure sensor that detects the pressure in the air bladder and outputs signal corresponding to the detected pressure to the Central Processing Unit (CPU), and wherein

(f) the Central Processing Unit (CPU) is powered up by a power supply (e.g., a battery) that is able to be charged wirelessly using current available wireless charging technologies, and wherein the CPU is able to:

I. link up to a motor by sending a signal to activate the motor which in turn will activate the pump to pump air via the air tube; and

II. link up to a memory that serves to store programmed functions that will enable the CPU to perform predetermined operation for the rest of the components within the cuff; and

III. connect to a transmitter that is able to link up wirelessly to an external device such as a mobile smartphone or portable tablet; and wherein the start/stop operation of the blood pressure monitor is controlled using the aforementioned external device via a software application (or app) that can be downloaded and installed onto the smartphone or portable tablet; and

IV. link up with the same app installed in the mobile smartphone or portable tablet that store data history, and whereby

(g) the pressure sensor, the Central Processing Unit (CPU), the memory and the transmitter can be miniaturised via a flexible flex PCB (Printed Circuit Board).

2. A blood pressure monitor comprising of:

(a) a cuff that can be attached and detached from the sleeve portion of a garment shirt using current available securing means such as embedded magnets, buttons, slits buckle strap, zipper, and etc. wherein

(b) the cuff comprises of an inflatable air bladder and wherein

(c) one or more air tubes are positioned within the cuff and links from the inflatable air bladder to a pump that pumps air into the inflatable air bladder; and

(f) the Central Processing Unit (CPU) is powered up by a power supply (e.g. a battery) that is able to be charged wirelessly using current available wireless charging technologies, and wherein the CPU is able to:

II. link up to a memory that serves to store programmed functions that will enable the CPU to perform predetermined operation for the rest of the components within the cuff; and III. connect to a transmitter that is able to link up wirelessly to an external device such as a mobile smartphone or portable tablet; and wherein the start/stop operation of the blood pressure monitor is controlled using the aforementioned external device via a software application (or app) that can be downloaded and installed onto the smartphone or portable tablet; and

(h) the pressure sensor, the Central Processing Unit (CPU), the memory and the transmitter can be miniaturised via a flexible flex PCB (Printed Circuit Board).