Josep Solà et al 2009 Physiol. Meas. 30 603 doi:10.1088/0967-3334/30/7/006
Josep Solà1, Rolf Vetter1, Philippe Renevey1, Olivier Chételat1, Claudio Sartori2 and Stefano F Rimoldi3
Show affiliationsPulse wave velocity (PWV) is a surrogate of arterial stiffness and represents a non-invasive marker of cardiovascular risk. The non-invasive measurement of PWV requires tracking the arrival time of pressure pulses recorded in vivo, commonly referred to as pulse arrival time (PAT). In the state of the art, PAT is estimated by identifying a characteristic point of the pressure pulse waveform. This paper demonstrates that for ambulatory scenarios, where signal-to-noise ratios are below 10 dB, the performance in terms of repeatability of PAT measurements through characteristic points identification degrades drastically. Hence, we introduce a novel family of PAT estimators based on the parametric modeling of the anacrotic phase of a pressure pulse. In particular, we propose a parametric PAT estimator (TANH) that depicts high correlation with the Complior® characteristic point D1 (CC = 0.99), increases noise robustness and reduces by a five-fold factor the number of heartbeats required to obtain reliable PAT measurements.
87.80.-y Biophysical techniques (research methods)
47.63.Cb Blood flow in cardiovascular system
87.19.R- Mechanical and electrical properties of tissues and organs
Issue 7 (July 2009)
Received 13 March 2009, accepted for publication 1 May 2009
Published 3 June 2009
Josep Solà et al 2009 Physiol. Meas. 30 603
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