Authors:
H. C. Pereira
1
;
J. Maldonado
2
;
T. Pereira
3
;
M. Contente
4
;
V. Almeida
4
;
T. Pereira
4
;
J. B. Simões
5
;
J. Cardoso
4
and
C. Correia
4
Affiliations:
1
Instrumentation Centre (CI-GEI), Physics Department, University of Coimbra and ISA- Intelligent Sensing Anywhere, Portugal
;
2
Instituto de Investigação e Formação Cardiovascular, Portugal
;
3
Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Saúde de Coimbra, Portugal
;
4
Instrumentation Centre (CI-GEI), Physics Department and University of Coimbra, Portugal
;
5
ISA- Intelligent Sensing Anywhere, Instrumentation Centre (CI-GEI), Physics Department and University of Coimbra, Portugal
Keyword(s):
Local Pulse Wave Velocity, Double Headed Probe, Microphones, Test Bench Systems, in-Vivo Measurements.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Biomedical Engineering
;
Biomedical Equipment
;
Biomedical Instrumentation
;
Biomedical Instruments and Devices
;
Biomedical Sensors
;
Devices
;
Health Monitoring Devices
;
Human-Computer Interaction
;
Physiological Computing Systems
Abstract:
The use of local pulse wave velocity (PWV) as an independent risk factor for cardiovascular events and as a marker of atherosclerosis has been gained clinical relevance over the years. A novel acoustic double headed probe for non-invasive measurement of the local PWV is presented in this paper. The PWV is assessed in one single location and involves the determination of time delay between the signals acquired simultaneously by two acoustic sensors, placed ≈11 mm apart. Several tests were performed in special purposes test bench systems in order to characterize the acoustic probe (AP) regarding the existence of crosstalk between the transducers, repeatability, waveform analysis and also its time resolution. Results demonstrate the effectiveness of the AP in acquiring repeatedly the same waveform, with the possibility to measure higher PWV (14 m/s), with a relative error less than 5%, when using two uncoupled APs. In-vivo acquisitions were also carried out with the AP in the carotid a
rtery of 17 healthy volunteers with the intention of local PWV and other hemodynamic parameters estimation, such as left ventricular ejection time (LVET). For the total of subjects’ sample, the obtained mean carotid PWV was 2.96±1.08 m/s and the LVET mean value was 288.59±21.42 ms.
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