Automatic analysis of systolic, diastolic and mean blood pressure of continuous measurement before, during and after sleep arousals in polysomnographic overnight recordings

Abstract

This paper deals with a detailed examination of sleep arousal events and the corresponding changes of systolic, diastolic and mean blood pressure. Arousals are short awakening events during sleep which do not become noticeable for the sleeping person. But the organism increases vital parameters, e.g. the blood pressure. The recreative sleep is disturbed, and the risk factor for cardiovascular diseases rises significantly. Impact on the continuous measured blood pressure for two arousal groups named spontaneous and non spontaneous arousals will be investigated. Polysomnographic recordings of patients suffering from sleep apnoea and a healthy control group will be examined. Using averaged blood pressure curves and a high time resolution, the courses are investigated in more detail than before. The results show an increasing slope a few seconds before and possible pressure minima a few seconds after the beginning of the arousal. © 2012 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston.