Arterial Blood Pressure Stratification with Wrist Photoplethysmography: Laboratory vs. Real World

Photoplethysmography (PPG) has recently gained attention for monitoring the cardiovascular system with wearable sensors. One of the most critical challenges is estimating blood pressure (BP) from PPG. Several attempts have been made in this direction, primarily based on laboratory recordings. Real-world recordings can provide more complete information about cardiovascular health by monitoring physiological changes throughout the day. In this work, we analyzed PPG morphological features obtained during laboratory and real-world sessions to evaluate their ability to discriminate between low- vs high-BP individuals. All features presented different behaviors when comparing laboratory and real-world sessions. Some showed statistically significant differences between subjects with low and high BP, based on the type of session and the hour of the day. This study underlines the differences between laboratory and real-world recordings to estimate BP from PPG.