Contemporary cardiological diagnosis requires rapid diagnostic systems for detection of arterial blood pulsa- tion based on transducers of biomedical signals. Arterial blood pulsation monitoring is a promising approach to this problem. Detection and processing of arterial blood pulsation signals is often used in diagnostic systems for monitoring of heart rate, oxygen saturation of blood hemoglobin, and hemodynamic processes in blood ves- sels of the human body [1-3]. There are two currently used methods of detection of arterial blood pulsation signals – plethysmography and sphygmography. Plethysmographic method includes detection of blood pulsation signals in a body part con- taining an arterial blood vessel. Several types of plethys- mography (depending on the type of transducers) are available: mechanical plethysmography, electroimped- ance plethysmography, and photoplethysmography [3]. Sphygmography is based on monitoring of pulsation of artery wall using sensors providing transduction of mechanical signals into electrical signals. Thus, existing systems for monitoring of arterial blood pulsation fall into two groups: sphygmographic detectors and plethysmographic detectors. Monitors of arterial blood pulsation and their classification are shown in Fig. 1. There are two methods of sphygmographic detection of arterial blood pulsation: applanation and compression (volume) sphygmography [3, 4]. Applanation sphygmography is based on detection of arterial blood pulsation as pressure waves in the area of a peripheral artery projection. With this technique, partial pressure (applanation) is applied to a surface artery and biosignal is detected using a piezoelectric pressure sensor. The main disadvantages of the applanation sphygmogra- phy are difficult positioning of the sensor in the artery projection and the necessity for fine adjustment of pres- sure at the artery site. The most common method of sphygmography includes the use of a pneumatic cuff for generation of modified pressure applied to the artery – the method of compression (volume) sphygmography [3]. This method involves application of a pneumatic cuff to a segment of the patient’s extremity and detection of the resulting sig- nal. The pneumatic cuff is connected to a source of com- pressed air, thereby increasing pressure in the cuff. The artery oscillation is detected by a pulsation sensor. A vol- ume compression oscillogram of arterial blood pulsation is obtained from the interaction of pressures in the cuff and artery. The monitoring system consisting of the cuff Biomedical Engineering, Vol. 48, No. 3, September, 2014, pp. 160-163. Translated from Meditsinskaya Tekhnika, Vol. 48, No. 3, May-Jun., 2014, pp. 40-43. Original article submitted March 23, 2014. 160 0006-3398/14/4803-0160  2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York Samara State Aerospace University, Samara, Russia; E-mail: fedoaleks@yandex.ru * To whom correspondence should be addressed. Structure of Arterial Pulse Signal Transducers A. A. Fedotov* and S. A. Akulov A review of variants of structural implementation of transducers for detection of arterial blood pulsation based on various physical principles of detection of biomedical signals is given. The structures of plethysmographic and sphygmographic transducers for detection of arterial blood pulsation are reviewed. The principles of action of transducers for detection of arterial blood pulsation are analyzed. Fig. 1. Monitors of arterial blood pulsation. Arterial blood pulsation signal transducers Sphygmographic Plethysmographic Mechanical plethysmography Electroimpedance plethysmography Photoplethysmography DOI 10.1007/s10527-014-9443-0