pulse wave velocity

Pulse wave velocity (PWV) is a pressure-dependent marker of arterial stiffness, wherefore pulse arrival time (PAT) has been widely investigated for cuff-less blood pressure (BP) estimation. However, PAT is typically biased by a cardiac delay and peripheral vasculature. Therefore, we demonstrate an ultrasound-based method for central PAT segmentation into cardiac isovolumic contraction (IVC) and vascular pulse transit time (PTT). Contrasting peripheral PAT, central PTT-based PWV explained more than twice as much variability in the reference PWV and yielded significantly lower BP estimation errors. Thereby this unilateral arterial stiffness assessment bears the potential to improve cardiovascular risk assessment in clinical routines. read more