title: Initial study on pulse wave velocity acquired from one hand using two synchronized wireless reflectance pulse oximeters.
abstract: Pulse wave velocity (PWV) has garnered attention as a means to estimate vessel elasticity. This paper presents an approach to measure PWV using two synchronized, wireless pulse oximeters placed on the wrist and fingertip of the same hand. A MATLAB interface acquires and time-aligns these incoming photoplethysmograms (PPGs), and then it calculates PWVs using time differences at three waveform features: the foot, inflection point, and peak of the rising slope in each PPG. Consistent with expectations, PWV values for inflection points are larger than those calculated at waveform feet, since PWV is known to increase with increased intra-arterial pressure. However, the presence of pulse wave reflections complicates the interpretation of PWVs calculated from the PPG peaks since the reflected components impose a varying time delay on the related peaks.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA. kejiali@ksu.edu
authors.forename: Kejia
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Warren
mesh_terms: D001794:Blood Pressure; D001808:Blood Vessels / Q000473:pathology; D003196:Computer Graphics; D003201:Computers; D004548:Elasticity; D004867:Equipment Design; D005385:Fingers / Q000502:physiology; D006225:Hand / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D015233:Models, Statistical; D010092:Oximetry / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D012984:Software; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D014953:Wrist / Q000502:physiology