Abstract

In an electronic blood pressure measurement device which is arranged to extract pulse waves from the measured cuff pressure, a pulse wave pattern is generated from the pulse wave amplitude and pulse wave interval data and this pulse wave pattern is compared with reference patterns to classify the pattern in order to accurately obtain biological information other than the blood pressure. Blood pressure amplitudes PA(i) are computed from the measured cuff pressures C(i) and a pulse wave pattern is generated (35) on the basis of this pulse wave amplitude data and this pulse wave pattern is classified into a plurality of reference patterns (37) according to reference patterns or reference values (36). Here, the reference patterns or reference values are set as hemodynamic references based on dynamic characteristics of the blood vessel or cardiac output characteristics. The pulse wave pattern is normalized as necessary to extract only the shape factors of the pattern, is displayed as a measured pattern corresponding to a reference pattern and is compared with the reference patterns in terms of shape. Also, besides the shape factors, the absolute values of pulse wave amplitudes and systolic pressures are used as references for pattern classification.