| The control of mean arterial blood pressure using sodium nitroprusside and other drugs is desired in many instances for post-operative cardiovascular patients. Because of the drug's rapidity of action and toxicity, it is desirable to utilize an automatic means of controlling the drug's infusion. In this thesis, a new general-purpose digital controller based on an integrating self tuner algorithm developed by Clarke and Gawthrop is applied to the control of mean arterial blood pressure. Computer simulations are carried out using a patient response model developed by J. B. Slate. Results of the simulations indicate the new controller is able to achieve satisfactory control while using less drug than a previous controller having considerable clinical experience. In addition, the new controller is adaptive to both inter- and intra-patient variabilities and has other advantages over previous approaches. |
