A patient monitoring system may use photoacoustic sensing to determine one or more physiological parameters of a subject. The system may detect an acoustic pressure response generated by the application and absorption of light, which may be used to identify the size of a blood vessel. The blood pressure of a subject may calculated based on the measured blood vessel size and calibration values. One or more calibration values may be determined based on a known relationship between a change in blood vessel size and a change in blood pressure.
