A method for monitoring a transducer array of individual pressure or force sensitive elements and for selecting the element within the array which most tracks the actual pulse waveform in an underlying artery, thus providing the most accurate measurement of the patient's blood pressure. The outputs of all of the transducer elements are employed in locating the particular element which is centrally located over the artery. A limited number of elements exhibiting local minima of diastolic pressure is first chosen. Then, pulse amplitude outputs from the limited number of transducer elements are employed in selecting that element within the limited-number group which is to be used for obtaining blood pressure measurements. The method provided by the present invention selects from the limited-number group of elements that element about which is centered the greatest spatially weighted average of a predetermined number of pulse amplitude values.
Dennis J. Wenzel; Dean C. Winter; Kevin S. Honeyager