Cardiovascular Health Monitoring Using Seismocardiography and Ballistocardiography

Seismocardiography (SCG) and ballistocardiography (BCG) are emerging non-invasive modalities that detect subtle body movements generated by cardiac contraction and blood ejection. SCG employs accelerometers placed on the chest wall to capture vibrations associated with valve motions and myocardial dynamics, while BCG measures whole-body recoil forces transmitted through a support surface, such as a bed or chair. Advances in microelectromechanical sensors, signal processing algorithms and machine learning have revitalised interest in these techniques for continuous heart-rate monitoring, detection of systolic time intervals and estimation of haemodynamic parameters such as stroke volume and pre-ejection period. By offering unobtrusive, low-cost monitoring outside clinical environments, SCG and BCG promise earlier detection of heart failure decompensation, remote management of chronic disease and integration into wearable and smart-home systems. Their complementarity with electrocardiography and echocardiography enables richer characterisation of mechanical cardiac function, potentially transforming preventative cardiology and long-term follow-up.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have elucidated the fundamental origins of BCG waveforms through mechanistic modelling, demonstrating that major waves arise from transient pressure gradients in the aorta. This insight validates the use of unobtrusive BCG measurements for monitoring cardiac output and vessel compliance. Parallel work has defined and correlated fiducial points in SCG signals with physiological events identified by ultrasound, establishing reliable markers for valve opening and closure. Building on these foundations, automated algorithms now accurately detect systolic time intervals in SCG, even in noisy or ambulatory conditions, by refining peak-detection templates and incorporating adaptive filtering. Collectively, these contributions have created a robust framework for translating SCG and BCG signals into clinically meaningful indices of cardiac performance.

Cardiovascular Health Monitoring Using Seismocardiography and Ballistocardiography publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in cardiovascular health monitoring using seismocardiography and ballistocardiography across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Seismocardiography (SCG): Measurement of chest-wall vibrations due to cardiac mechanical activity using accelerometers.

Ballistocardiography (BCG): Detection of whole-body recoil forces resulting from blood ejection into the vasculature, measured via force sensors or transducers.

Fiducial point: A reproducible feature in a biological signal, such as a peak or valley, that corresponds to a specific physiological event.

Systolic time interval (STI): The duration between defined cardiac electrical or mechanical events, used as an index of ventricular performance.

Piezoelectric sensor: A device that generates an electrical signal in response to mechanical stress, often used to detect vibrations.

Passive radio frequency identification (RFID): A wireless technology in which a tag harvests energy from an external reader to power sensing and data transmission.

References

1. Ballistocardiogram: Mechanism and Potential for Unobtrusive Cardiovascular Health Monitoring. Scientific Reports (2016).
2. Gyrocardiography: A New Non-invasive Monitoring Method for the Assessment of Cardiac Mechanics and the Estimation of Hemodynamic Variables. Scientific Reports (2017).
3. Automatic Identification of Systolic Time Intervals in Seismocardiogram. Scientific Reports (2016).
4. Bed-Based Ballistocardiography System Using Flexible RFID Sensors for Noninvasive Single- and Dual-Subject Vital Signs Monitoring. IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement (2024).
5. A Novel Broadband Forcecardiography Sensor for Simultaneous Monitoring of Respiration, Infrasonic Cardiac Vibrations and Heart Sounds. Frontiers in Physiology (2021).
6. Unobtrusive Estimation of Cardiac Contractility and Stroke Volume Changes Using Ballistocardiogram Measurements on a High Bandwidth Force Plate. Sensors (2016).