Scientists are putting forward a way to track changes in a person's cardiovascular system

Each heartbeat sends blood flowing throughout the human body. While an electrocardiogram uses a contact approach to measure the electrical activity of the heart, a ballistocardiogram is a non-contact means of measuring the mechanical effect of blood flow in the cardiovascular system.

Giovanna Guidoboni, Marjorie Skubic and a team from the University of Missouri are developing a standardized model for interpreting the results of a balistocardiogram that may provide an additional approach for the early detection of various cardiovascular diseases. Ten years ago, the Skubic team developed hydraulic sensors that can be placed under a mattress to measure a person's heart rate and breathing pattern. They noted that waveforms changed over time, indicating that additional information from these measurements could be used to track changes in health.

"At the present time, only five percent of the ballistocardiogram information is used, but if we can normalize the results, we can provide a map to understand the underlying causes of the actual physiological movement of our body", said Guidoboni. "This could help early detection and prevention of cardiovascular diseases such as heart disease."

Guidoboni joined the Skubic team and created a mathematical model that allows him to understand the additional information provided by the balistocardiogram and to move closer to a standardized model.

"Even when we stand or lie down, our mbad redistributes to the inside of our body and generates a bodily movement that can be captured with a ballistocardiogram," Guidoboni said. "By applying our mathematical model, we can see unknown information about an individual's cardiovascular system, such as the elasticity of the arteries, the contractility of the ventricles in the heart, or the viscoelasticity of the blood vessels." a virtual cardiovascular system by mathematically modeling the blood flow in our body. "

The study "Cardiovascular function and ballistocardiogram: a relationship interpreted by mathematical modeling" was published in IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering. Guidoboni and Skubic are both professors in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the MU College of Engineering. Guidoboni is also a professor of mathematics at the College of Arts and Sciences of the MU. Other writers include Moein Enayati, James Keller, Mihail Popescu, Laurel Despins and Virginia Huxley of MU; Lorenzo Sala from the University of Strasbourg; Riccardo Sacco of Politecnico di Milano; Marcela Szopos from Paris Descartes University. Funding was provided by the University of Missouri and the Center for Eldercare and Rehabilitation Technology. The content engages only the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official point of view of the funding agencies. The team would like to thank David Heise of Lincoln University for developing the hydraulic bed sensor while he was a graduate student at MU.