Real Time Blood Pressure Based Wearable Fall Detection for Stroke and Traumatic Brain Injury Patients

Project Description:
After neurological injury such as stroke or traumatic brain injury (TBI), it is important to monitor a patient’s blood pressure as a common secondary complication is hypotension, a blood pressure that is below normal for the individual. When the blood pressure drops below a certain level, oxygen and other nutrients are not efficiently delivered to the brain. This can lead to dizziness and fainting, or can be an indication of other serious medical conditions.

In order to prevent fainting due to hypotension after a TBI or stroke, and potentially another TBI, physicians are interested in being able to monitor a patient’s blood pressure while in the community, and be able to alert the patient when their blood pressure falls below a certain level, and thus are at an increased risk of fainting, or even shock. The aim of this project is to develop a wearable sensor system that can measure blood pressure in real time and alert the user when they are at a high risk of fainting.

Project Mentor:
Engineering Mentor: Christine King, Dept. Biomedical Engineering, UCI, kingce@uci.edu

Physician Mentor: Steve Small, MD, PhD, Department of Neurology, UCI, small@uci.edu

Offsite Physician Mentor: Glen Seliger, Dept. Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabilitation, Helen Hayes Hospital, NY

Offsite Physician Mentor: Jason Greenberg, Dept. Stroke Rehabilitation, Helen Hayes Hospital, NY

Team Members:

Jessica Bae Delim Estrella, Wing Yan Hoh, Khoa Minh Huynh, William Patrick Juan, Eric John Lawver