Carotid Local Pulse Wave Velocity Measurement using Dual- Element Accelerometric Patch Probe.

In this work, we demonstrate an accelerometric patch probe with two microelectromechanical accelerometer sensors for local pulse wave velocity (PWV) measurement from the carotid artery. Dual acceleration plethysmogram (APG) signals were acquired from a small section of the artery by keeping the sensors at 32 mm apart. A custom analog front-end circuit (inter-channel delay $< 0.15$ ms) was used for reliable signal acquisition. Simultaneously acquired dual APG signals were processed in real-time and local PWV was evaluated in a beat-by-beat manner. A transversal study on a cohort of 15 volunteers (4 males, 11 females, mean age = $25.6 \pm 1.92$ years) was conducted to validate the developed prototype system. During the study, carotid local PWV and brachial blood pressure (BP) parameters were recorded from both sitting and standing posture. The absolute values of measured carotid local PWV were in the range of 3 m/s - 4.2 m/s (beat-to-beat variation $=$ 2.61% - 13.07%). Measured local PWV values significantly correlated with brachial systolic BP ($\textbf{R}^{\mathbf {2}} =$ 0.87) and diastolic BP ($\textbf{R}_{\mathbf {\, }}^{\mathbf {2}} \quad =$ 0.79). Logarithmic functions provided the best monotonic model for carotid local PWV versus brachial BP parameters for the recorded data points. The developed population-specific mathematical models were then used for cuffless evaluation of BP parameters from carotid local PWV. The root-mean-square error in the estimated systolic and diastolic pressure was 7.53 mmHg and 6.0 mmHg respectively. Study results illustrate the potential application of the developed dual-accelerometric system in non-invasive, continuous cuffless BP measurement techniques.