When it comes to the future of blood pressure monitoring, there may be a new alternative to the traditional cuff: a video selfie. 

New research published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging found that a smartphone-based blood pressure measurement that employs transdermal optical imaging technology was able to predict systolic and diastolic blood pressure with high accuracy. 

TOPLINE DATA

Researchers discovered that the models were able to predict systolic blood pressure with an accuracy of 94.81%, and diastolic blood pressure with an accuracy of 95.7%. 

The study demonstrated that the technology is able to predict the blood pressure within the “clinically accepted accuracy threshold of 5 ± 8 mm Hg when tested on a full range of blood pressures,” the researchers wrote in the reads. 

HOW IT WAS DONE

The technology used in the study combined transdermal optical imaging (TOI), a type of technology developed to that employs machine learning and is able to image blood flow patterns from videos of the face, with smartphone cameras. 

A total of 1,328 adults with normal pressure were enrolled. Researchers used 70% of the data set to train the models, and 15% to test them. The study noted that the last 15% was used to validate model performance. Researchers noted that the study was done in a well-controlled environment with fixed lighting, which the researchers noted a key limitation to their work.

THE BACKGROUND 

High blood pressure is both common and potentially dangerous condition. According to the CDC, high blood pressure was a primary or contributing cause of 360,000 death in the US during 2013.  

“High blood pressure is a major contributor to cardiovascular disease — a leading cause of death and disability. To manage and prevent it, regular monitoring of one’s blood pressure is essential,” Kang Lee, the study’s lead author and a professor and research chair in developmental neuroscience at the University of Toronto in Canada, said in a statement. “Cuff-based blood pressure measuring devices, while highly accurate, are inconvenient and uncomfortable. Users tend not to follow American Heart Association guidelines and device manufacturers’ suggestion to take multiple measurements each time.”

This isn’t the only technology being developed to tackle this problem. Swiss startup aktiia launched a continuous blood pressure monitoring bracelet last year. Additionally, last year Microsoft filed a patent for an eyeglass monitor capable of tracking blood pressure. 

ON THE RECORD

“This study shows that facial video can contain some information about systolic blood pressure,” Ramakrishna Mukkamala, Circulation Imaging's editorial author and a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Michigan State University in East Lansing, said in a statement. “If future studies could confirm this exciting result in hypertensive patients and with video camera measurements made during daily life, then obtaining blood pressure information with a click of a camera may become reality.”