Transcutaneous measurement of frequency dispersion in the regional pulse wave velocity

The pulse wave velocity (PWV) is the propagation speed of the pulsation along the artery due to the heartbeat; its measurement is being reported to estimate the elasticity of the arterial wall for noninvasive diagnosis of arteriosclerosis. It is important for advanced diagnosis, to determine the PWV for each frequency and for each instance in time during the cardiac cycle. Using a phased tracking method developed, the movement of the arterial wall is accurately tracked and small velocity signals at multiple points in the human carotid artery along a linear-type probe are all simultaneously measured with sub-micrometer accuracy. By applying a spatial autoregressive modeling to the measured signals after using the Hilbert transform, the regional PWV of each frequency component was determined at the beginning of the ejection period, T/sub E/, and at the beginning of the ventricular diastole, T/sub D/. The novel detection of the PWV offers potential for quantitative diagnosis of atherosclerosis.