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New Tattoo Can Monitor Blood Pressure

Image of a tatoo.

A new electronic tattoo developed by engineers at the University of Texas in Austin can continuously monitor blood pressure, which may help to reliably and accurately measure blood pressure outside of a clinical setting. The study that the engineers conducted even shows that the measurements that the tattoo reads actually exceeded the accuracy levels of many current available options.  

The device works by incorporating thin layers of graphene into the tattoo to allow electrical currents to pass through which analyse the body’s response. This is how the measurements are taken, and is otherwise known as bioimpedance

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This method allows the e-tattoo to deliver thousands of different blood pressure measurements on a continuous basis, which could help those working in the medical field to analyse results from a wide variety of situations. Another advantage is that it is comfortable to wear for long periods of time, and users will not have to worry about a device sliding around their arm, a factor that could also make readings inaccurate at times. 

“The sensor for the tattoo is weightless and unobtrusive. You place it there. You don’t even see it, and it doesn’t move.” says Roozbeh Jafari, a professor of biomedical engineering, computer science, and electrical engineering at Texas A&M University. 

Currently, there are no viable solutions on the market yet for ‘cuffless’ blood-pressure monitoring, however, it looks like this new e-tattoo is set to fill that gap very soon.