title: Parametric estimation of pulse arrival time: a robust approach to pulse wave velocity.
abstract: Pulse 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(R) 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.
authors.affiliation: CSEM-Centre Suisse d'Electronique et de Microtechnique, 2002-Neuchâtel, Switzerland. jsa@csem.ch
authors.forename: Josep
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Solà
authors.forename: Rolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vetter
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Renevey
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Chételat
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sartori
authors.forename: Stefano F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Rimoldi
mesh_terms: D001158:Arteries / Q000502:physiology*; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity / Q000502:physiology*; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D011673:Pulsatile Flow / Q000502:physiology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012307:Risk Factors