in the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments , reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof , and in which is shown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced . it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural or logical changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention . the following detailed description , therefore , is not to be taken in a limiting sense , and the scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims . referring to the block diagram of fig1 there is indicated a plurality of individual laboratory animals 10 , 12 and 14 each having a blood pressure sensor and telemetry transmitter of the type described in the brockway u . s . pat . no . 4 , 846 , 191 implanted therein . these implanted modules are identified by numeral 11 in fig1 . disposed with or in proximity of each of the cages where the animals are kept is a telemetry receiver 15 which is tuned to pick up a signal transmitted from an individual animal . the individual receivers , in turn , are connected to multiplexers , as at 16 , capable of servicing the number of individual receivers connected thereto , whereby data from a particular selected animal may be fed into the computer - based system 18 for collecting , storing , displaying , and analyzing data from a large plurality of animals . in accordance with the present invention , the sensor / transmitters 11 are surgically implanted within the animals so as to monitor blood pressure in a predetermined blood vessel . the sensor / transmitter transmits bursts of pulses , the timing of which codes the magnitude of the analog blood pressure signal picked up by the sensor . because the implanted units measure pressure relative to a vacuum , a pressure reference 20 is used to provide an input of the ambient barometric pressure to the computer - based system 18 . by subtracting the ambient room pressure from the transmitter pressure readings , changes in barometric pressure can be accommodated . turning now to fig2 there is illustrated by means of a software flow diagram the algorithm executed by the computer - based system 18 for deriving both blood pressure information and respiratory information from the blood pressure measurements taken using the equipment illustrated in fig1 . this flow chart is in sufficient detail that persons skilled in programming an ibm pc or a clone thereof can write the source code for such a computer . the first step in the algorithm identified by numeral 20 is to bring in the raw blood pressure data from an animal via the associated receiver 15 and consolidation matrix 16 . this data is temporarily held in a dma buffer ( block 22 ) where it is maintained until called for by the program . had more than one sensor been implanted in the animal to provide measurements of more than one physiologic parameter , such as , for example , blood pressure and ekg , the data stream provided by the associated telemetry transmitter would include both channels of data . hence , the software includes a routine for separating the multichannel data ( block 24 ). in such an arrangement , a circular buffer is provided for each of the parameters being measured so that data from the individual channels can be separately stored ( block 26 ). the data from a circular buffer , when selected , is processed in an interpolation algorithm ( block 28 ), which converts the data to points substantially equi - spaced in time . the interval between successive points is set by the sample rate chosen in the software . it does so by fitting a third order polynomial of the form y = ax 3 + bx 2 + cx + d to a series of four points comprising blood pressure readings at four different times . continuing on with the assumption that it is the blood pressure parameter that has been sensed and is being processed , at block 30 , the data are converted to appropriate units , e . g ., mmhg . if noise is present in the interpolated data , it may be necessary to low pass filter the data to remove high frequency noise ( block 32 ). the resulting waveform data may again be held in a buffer ( block 34 ) until called for . if desired , and as represented by block 36 , the waveform can be saved on the computer &# 39 ; s hard drive , a floppy - disk and / or presented on a computer display screen . the blood pressure waveform can be processed by a feature detection algorithm ( block 38 ) in which the peaks , valleys , slopes , zero - crossings and the like are examined to extract information of value to the researcher , such as systole , diastole , heart rate and dp / dt . referring to the waveform of fig3 there is illustrated a plot of blood pressure measured in mmhg versus time for a five - second interval . the systolic points obtained as a result of the feature detection operation 38 are identified in fig3 by numeral 40 and the diastolic valleys by numeral 42 . the systolic points and diastolic points shown in fig3 are illustrative of sequences of selected blood pressure features such as beat - to - beat systolic data points and beat - to - beat diastolic data points , but which can also include other blood pressure features such as beat - to - beat mean values of blood pressure over a predetermined time interval . to obtain readings of the systolic and diastolic blood pressure , the points 40 and 42 may be averaged over a predetermined time interval such as , for example , 10 seconds which , in fig2 is referred to as parameter extraction ( block 44 ). control loops back , via path 46 , to the input of block 20 where further raw data telemetered from the implanted sensor or sensors is inputted for processing . the algorithm represented by blocks 20 through 38 and 44 have been used in the past for deriving blood pressure parameters on an on - line and off - line basis . the present invention is concerned with the improvement whereby respiratory parameters may also be derived from the measured blood pressure signals obtained from the laboratory animals or alternatively from humans . referring again to fig2 the series of systole points 40 obtained as a result of the feature detection operation 38 are supplied as inputs to another curve - fitting algorithm ( block 48 ) which functions to add additional points between the peaks 40 , thereby creating a smooth curve between adjacent systolic peaks in the blood pressure versus time waveform . the thus curve - fitted systolic waveform is labeled as such in fig3 . once a third order curve has been fit to the data , the resulting waveform is tested for critical points based on a predetermined criteria ( block 50 ). for example , the predetermined criteria in the preferred embodiment defines critical points at maximum excursions above a zero - crossing and / or peaks and valleys in the curve - fitted waveform . a test is made at decision block 52 whether a critical point has been reached and , if not , control exits via path 54 and further systole points are subjected to the curve - fitting algorithm at block 48 . when the test at decision block 52 indicates that a critical point has been reached , the operation performed at block 56 determines whether the critical point is a maximum or a minimum . by computing the interval between two adjacent maximums or two adjacent minimums , the length of a respiratory cycle is obtained . the inverse of this cycle length is respiratory rate , measured in breaths per second . the interval is continuously computed as represented by block 58 to provide a current , real - time indication of respiration rate . although respiratory rate is a parameter of value and is the parameter derived in the preferred embodiment , the present invention is not limited to deriving respiratory rate from the curve - fit beat - beat data as the present invention can be applied to derive other physiologic parameters from the curve - fit beat - beat data . it is seen that there is provided a method and apparatus to derive respiration rate and other physiologic parameters , either on - line or off - line from a continuous blood pressure signal . this is accomplished by way of a feature detection software algorithm . the capability of continuous waveform processing provides useful data relating to the respiratory system . in addition to on - line processing , the same pressure waveforms can be post - processed to derive respiration rate , other respiratory data , or other information related to other physiologic parameters which may be contained in the blood pressure waveform . the invention offers the advantage of obtaining data on more than one physiologic parameter , e . g ., blood pressure and respiratory rate , using only a single sensor implanted in the animal . this invention has been described herein in considerable detail in order to comply with the patent statutes and to provide those skilled in the art with the information needed to apply the novel principles and to construct and use such specialized components as are required . however , it is to be understood that the invention can be carried out by specifically different equipment and devices , and that various modifications , both as to the equipment details and operating procedures , can be accomplished without departing from the scope of the invention itself . for example , the present invention is not limited to third order polynomials curves , as other n th order polynomials and other suitable mathematical models can be similarly fitted to blood pressure / time points according to the present invention . likewise , it is not necessary that the blood pressure data be telemetered . a blood pressure sensor could , for example , transmit a signal indicative of blood pressure via leds or wires to an amplifier and analog - to - digital converter , which provides a blood pressure signal into the computer - based system according to the present invention . when considering modifications to the preferred embodiment , it is to be understood that the respiratory - related information is obtainable by performing peak detection directly on the feature data without curve fitting , but since the data are not always ideal or equally spaced , it is difficult to resolve maximum and minimum points accurately as resolved by the present invention . respiratory - related information is also obtainable by performing spectral analysis on the raw pressure waveform , but since the pressure data varies in frequency and amplitude , this approach is less than ideal in that it works best on truly periodic data . one could also signal process the data in accordance with the barthelmes paper cited in the background section in which the raw blood pressure date is first high - pass filtered and then low - pass filtered . the barthelmes approach , however , unlike the present invention , requires an optimal design of the filter and amplifier characteristics , be they digital or analog , to deal with a wide spectrum of data characteristics . as to alternatives to the above described preferred embodiment , one embodiment of the present invention performs spectral analysis on the curve fit data values , such as the third order fitted curve , instead of performing the peak detection described above . another embodiment of the present invention may achieve a more accurate indication of the respiratory effect on blood pressure by curve fitting the averaged systolic and diastolic values for each cardiac cycle before applying a peak detection to determine respiration rate . this approach is advantageous only when the systolic and diastolic curves remain completely in phase . although specific embodiments have been illustrated and described herein for purposes of description of the preferred embodiment , it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that a wide variety of alternate and / or equivalent implementations calculated to achieve the same purposes may be substituted for the specific embodiments shown and described without departing from the scope of the present invention . those with skill in the mechanical , electro - mechanical , electrical , and computer arts will readily appreciate that the present invention may be implemented in a very wide variety of embodiments . this application is intended to cover any adaptations or variations of the preferred embodiments discussed herein . therefore , it is manifestly intended that this invention be limited only by the claims and the equivalents thereof .