Analyzes of daily activity of elderly using a portable device for monitoring cardiovascular parameters together with human postures

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In this project, a prototype system for ambulatory monitoring of cardiovascular parameters together with human postures was devised and applied for assessing activity of elderly in daily life. The system consisted mainly of two parts ; one is for noninvasively measuring blood pressure (BP) and cardiac output (CO) based on volume oscillometric and transthoracic electrical admittance method, respectively. The other is for ambulatory human posture monitor using electromagnetic inclinometers. Through the system performance tests using healthy subjects, it was confirmed that the device was capable of monitoring diurnal haemodynamic change in daily life together with detailed posture change in the subject. Using this system, two main subjects were investigated ; one is effect of daily activity on diurnal change in cardiovascular parameters and the other is quantitative assessment of daily activity in elderly.To evaluate effect of daily activity on circadian fluctuation of the parameters, exp … More eriments for 48-hour *mbulatory monitoring were carried out using 8 healthy subjects (5 males and 3 females). On the first day of the experiment, the subjects were under normal daily activity, while on the second day, they were under bed rest with bathroom privileges. From the results obtained, it was demonstrated that circadian fluctuations were observed not only in BP, but also in. CO and other parameters such as peripheral resistance, and these fluctuations were also observed even in the second day, suggesting not only physical activity but also mental and psychological stress could be a cause of the circadian fluctuations.To analyze daily posture change of elderly, experiments of 10-hours' monitoring of posture under Daily life were performed using 8 female subjects aged from 71 to 83. From the data obtained by histogram and animation data analysis, it was clearly demonstrated that the living condition such as, in hospital, in facility of health care services, in home with or without family, strongly affect the subject's posture change and activity, e.g., those of the subjects in hospital were significantly lower than the others, and those of the subjects in home with family were lower than those without family. These results suggest that to prevent so called "bedridden elderly", living condition should be carefully considered. Less