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Carotid Pulse Wave Analysis: Future Direction of Hemodynamic and Cardiovascular Risk Assessment
Sam Parittotokkaporn1, Denis de Castro2, Andrew Lowe3
1School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
Insights
Measuring arterial stiffness using wearable sensors offers a more reproducible and reliable method for assessing cardiovascular risk than traditional sphygmomanometry. This technique provides a better prognostic marker for cardiovascular health.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular physiology
- Biomedical engineering
- Medical diagnostics
Background:
- Conventional sphygmomanometry has limitations in precision and reproducibility due to short-term variability and external factors like the white coat effect.
- Arterial wall stiffness, a marker of atherosclerosis, exhibits less short-term variability, making it a preferable prognostic indicator.
- Current methods for assessing cardiovascular hemodynamics can be improved for better clinical utility.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the potential of measuring large artery mechanical properties as an improvement over existing cardiovascular assessment techniques.
- To explore the use of arterial stiffness, specifically in the carotid artery, as a reliable biomarker for cardiovascular risk.
- To discuss a simple, inexpensive, and noninvasive technique for assessing arterial stiffness.
Main Methods:
- Utilizing noninvasive wearable sensor technologies for pulse wave analysis.
- Focusing on the carotid artery for arterial stiffness evaluation.
- Assessing central pressures and pulse waveform parameters.
Main Results:
- Arterial stiffness measurement offers improved reproducibility compared to conventional sphygmomanometry.
- Wearable sensor technology enables reliable, noninvasive assessment of arterial stiffness.
- This technique is supported by clinical and epidemiological evidence as a biomarker of cardiovascular risk.
Conclusions:
- Noninvasive measurement of arterial stiffness via wearable sensors is a promising advancement in cardiovascular assessment.
- This method is a reliable and cost-effective alternative to traditional blood pressure monitoring for risk stratification.
- Arterial stiffness assessment provides a more stable and valuable prognostic marker for cardiovascular health.
Abstract:
Evaluation of the hemodynamic function of the cardiovascular system via measurement of the mechanical properties of the large arteries may provide a substantial improvement over present techniques. Practitioners are familiar with the problem of low reproducibility of conventional sphygmomanometry, which exhibits reasonable accuracy but low precision owing to its marked variability over time and in different circumstances (e.g., the white coat effect). Arterial wall stiffness is a consequence of atherosclerosis developing over time; thus, it has little short-term variability and is thus preferable to be used as a prognostic marker. In particular, arterial stiffness can be evaluated at the carotid artery using noninvasive approaches based on wearable sensor technologies for pulse wave analysis. These enable the assessment of central pressures and pulse waveform parameters that are expected to replace peripheral blood pressure measurement using the inflatable cuff. In this study, we discuss this simple and inexpensive technique, which has been shown to be reliable with the clinical and epidemiological evidence for its use as a biomarker of cardiovascular risk.
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