A Comparative Study of Brachial-Ankle Pulse Wave Velocity and Heart-Finger Pulse Wave Velocity in Korean Adults

Arterial stiffness is considered an index of vascular aging. The brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) method is widely used because of its proven effectiveness; and the pulse wave velocity measurement method using both electrocardiogram (ECG) and photoplethysmogram (PPG) is actively being studied due to the convenience of measurement and the possibility of miniaturization. The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the effects of age and gender in Korean adults using both the baPWV method and the PWV method with ECG and finger PPG (heart-finger PWV). The measurements have been carried out for 185 healthy subjects of Korean adults, and the results showed that the baPWV was highly correlated with age in both genders (r = 0.94 for both males and females). However, the correlation values in heart-finger PWV measurement were significantly lower than those of baPWV (r = 0.37 for males and r = 0.71 for females). Although the heart-finger PWV method is suitable for mobile applications because it can be easily miniaturized while maintaining its signal quality, these results show that the heart-finger PWV method is not as effective as baPWV at evaluating the arterial stiffness.