Light touch medicine

A DEVICE that monitors blood pressure by shining light along the skin could be available in the next few months.

The movement of the light beams changes in response to the pressure in the blood vessels – the device analyses these tiny changes to calculate blood pressure.

An initial study showed the new instrument is more accurate at reading blood pressure than the traditional cuffs, which have been used for a century, and would be a better aid in diagnosis. Hypertension is a major cause of strokes and heart failure.