Reflection-Immune Featured Segments Cross Correlation Approach for the Analysis of Bilateral Radial Pulse Wave Velocities

Pulse wave velocity (PWV) is a vital bio-indicator of the early cardiovascular diseases. Typically, higher amplitude of PWV indicates stiffer artery. Compared with regional PWV, local PWV is capable of providing a more comprehensive and specific evaluation of artery properties. The main challenge for calculating the local PWV lies in the difficulty in eliminating the multiple reflection effect which induces the change of pulse waveforms during its propagation, consequently the calculation of Pulse Transit Time (PTT) for PWV is highly influenced by the waveform change, which can be referred to as the “intrinsic PTT”, thus leading to the false positive/negative PTTs. This paper presents the Reflection-Immune Featured Segments Cross-Correlation (RIFSCC) Approach, which enables the quantification of the multiple reflection effect. The “steady phase” during the correlation analysis is identified and the “intrinsic PTT” could be consequently eliminated from the actual PTT calculation. Based on the RIFSCC method, the PWV features are derived based on the measurements on 6 volunteers, i.e., lower Body Mass Index (BMI) corresponds to higher PWV amplitudes in general; stronger grip/muscle strength corresponds to lower PWV amplitude; with similar level of difference between left and right grip strengths, higher BMI value corresponds to lower left PWV and higher right PWV. We believe that the RIFSCC method necessitates further investigation with more physiological parameters included on more volunteers with various health statuses, and the analysis of the PWV features will definitely provide more insightful information in clinical applications for cardiovascular diseases.