title: Systolic pressure slope: system for automated display and calculation.
abstract: The rate of rise of arterial blood pressure--the systolic pressure slope--has been measured noninvasively at the ankle and has been shown to be reduced by minor degrees of peripheral arterial stenosis. This report describes an electronic system used to display the systolic part of the arterial pressure wave. The system uses noninvasive data from an ECG, a blood pressure cuff, and a Doppler ultrasound detector. From these data the systolic pressure slope is measured automatically. One hundred and sixty-eight recordings from the limbs of 10 normal subjects were analyzed in detail and confirmed the reproducibility of the system. The points used to calculate the systolic slope fell close to a straight line, with correlation coefficients averaging 0.96. An average of eight repeat measurements were made per limb, and the coefficients of variation averaged 6.5%. Mean values for the normalized systolic pressure slope agreed with previously published data.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001331:Automation; D001795:Blood Pressure Determination / Q000379:methods*; D003626:Data Display; D004301:Doppler Effect; D004562:Electrocardiography; D006801:Humans; D014465:Ultrasonics