The present invention relates in general to display and warning method and apparatus for a manometer, and more particularly, to a method and an apparatus which determine which stage group does a measured blood pressure belong to.
Currently, most of electronic manometers provide the measured blood pressure by directly displaying the magnitude thereof. In the Japanese published Application No. 7-31594 and No. 2004-121632, warning functions of electronic manometers have been disclosed.
In the Japanese published application, the electronic manometer is operative to generate a warning signal when the measured blood pressure falls beyond the standard blood pressure range. The standard blood pressure range is determined by the user. Therefore, depending on the professional knowledge of the user, the standard blood pressure range may or may not be a good reference for determining the condition of the measured blood pressure. Further, the warning signal only allows the user to realize whether the measured blood pressure exceeds the standard range or not. Whether a special care or treatment is required cannot be determined from such warning signal.
The Patent No. 2004-121632 classifies the measured blood pressure and displays the classified measured blood pressure in a bar chart. Thereby, warning signal in accordance with the distribution can be generated and displayed. However, such type of manometer is not portable because it requires a large display area and a large volume. In addition, the fabrication cost is relatively high. Further, what each distribution represents has to be printed on the enclosure of the manometer or displayed on the display. Otherwise, the user cannot understand what each bar means.
A method and an apparatus for display the stage of a measured blood pressure of a patient are provided. The stage includes one of a normal stage, a potential hypertension stage, a first hypertension stage, and a second hypertension stage. When the blood pressure is measured, it is compared to the reference pressure values of various stages by a determination device, so as to determine the specific stage the measured blood pressure belong to. The stage of the blood pressure is then represented by a predetermined number of flashing blocks and/or a predetermined stage symbol.
Preferably, a sound generating device and/or a vibration generating device are provided to generate specific sound and vibration pattern to represent the stage of the blood pressure. The blocks may be configured into various formats, includes an annular ring and a circle divided into a plurality of segments, a plurality of concentric triangular or circular rings, for example.
The above objects and advantages of the present invention will be become more apparent by describing in detail exemplary embodiments thereof with reference to the attached drawings in which:
By the representation of flashing blocks, stage symbols, sound or vibration, the stage of the measured blood pressure can be cleared provided to the user and/or the patient.
The method for determining the stage of blood pressure adapts the standard published by World Health Organization (WHO). As shown in
In the embodiment as shown in
The electronic manometer 3 may further comprise an audio device 34 and/or a vibration device 35. The determination device 31 may output a signal to trigger the audio device 34 and/or vibration device 35 according to the determination result. Thereby, the stage of the measured blood pressure determined by the determination device 31 can be represented by the flashing blocks or stage symbols accompanied by sound or vibration.
The stage determination process can be referred to
In this embodiment, the measured systolic pressure is used to compare the standard pressure values for each stage. For example, the measured systolic pressure is compared to 160 mmHg for determine whether it falls in the second hypertension stage. If the measured systolic pressure is less than 160 mmHg, the diastolic pressure is compared to 100 mmHg, so as to determine whether the measured diastolic blood pressure falls in the second hypertension stage. If both the measured systolic and diastolic pressures are less than the reference values (160 mmHg and 100 mmHg, respectively), the measured blood pressures are then compared to the reference values of first hypertension stage. Similarly, whether the systolic pressure is over or equal to the 140 mmHg and the diastolic pressure is over or equal to 90 mmHg are determined. If not, the systolic and diastolic pressures are then compared to the reference values 120 mmHg and 80 mmHg, respectively. If the measured systolic and diastolic pressures are over or the same as 120 mmHg and 80 mmHg, respectively, the patient has the risk of potential hypertension. If the systolic and diastolic blood pressures are lower than 120 mmHg and 80 mmHg, respectively, the patient is under normal condition. Whenever the stage of the blood pressure is determined, the comparison stops, and a signal is output to the display for displaying the stage of the blood pressure by flashing block (the reference numeral 1 as shown in
The electronic manometer as shown in
The electronic manometer also includes four blocks 11, 12, 13 and 14. According to the determination result, that is, the stage of the blood pressure as determined, different number of the blocks 11, 12, 13 and 14 will flash as shown in
For example,
Various types of flashing blocks have been proposed in
In
In
In
While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art the various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.