Single-center Prospective Observational Study to Validate the Performance of the Aktiia Optical Blood Pressure Monitoring (OBPM) Device at the Wrist Against Double Auscultation

According to the World Health Organization, by 2025 hypertension will affect 1.5 billion adults worldwide. Half of the adult population is not diagnosed, and half of the treated population is not at the defined target of BP. Widespread use of out of office BP measurement is one of the proposed strategies to fight against hypertension worldwide.

The current Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring or Home Blood Pressure Monitoring are performed with a cuff placed around the arm. This 110-year-old technology is not only uncomfortable for the patient but can also result in a number of overestimated readings due to the stress induced while inflating the cuff.

Aktiia S.A. has developed an intermittent automated non-invasive cuffless blood pressure monitor determining over a series of cardiac cycles the values of the systolic blood pressure, the diastolic blood pressure and the heart rate. This miniature device is comfortably positioned with a bracelet on a user's wrist. The optical sensors integrated within the device exploit the principle of reflection photoplethysmography (PPG) to capture the user's skin pulsatility (change of arterial diameter occurring at each heartbeat). Aktiia OBPM algorithms are further applied to the recorded PPG signal to determine user's blood pressure and heart rate.

Because the measurement relies on optical sensors, and not on pneumatic cuffs, Aktiia OBPM device provides an increased overall comfort to the patient throughout the monitoring, does not induce sleep arousal during the night measurements and decreases the false positive readings induced by the stress associated with the cuff inflation. Aktiia OBPM device is intended to be used in the long term, as compared to one-day or one-week use of Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitors.

This study over several visits has been designed to assess both the accuracy and the stability of the Aktiia OBPM. The automaticity of the measurement when performed in different body positions and upon aerobic exercise was also evaluated.

By demonstrating both the accuracy and the stability of the measurements that can be performed in different body positions with a comfortable and miniature Aktiia OBPM device, Aktiia SA aims to make one step further in facilitating blood pressure measurement and monitoring in the out-of-clinic scenarios and integrating blood pressure monitoring into user's daily life. The diagnosis and treatment of hypertension in ambulatory settings is expected to largely benefit from these advancements