Acoustic Plethysmography for Aortic Pulse Wave Velocity Measurement: In-Vitro and In-Vivo Feasibility Study

Large arterial stiffness is an indicator of vascular aging and is a prognostic marker of cardiovascular disease. Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cf-PWV) is a gold standard technique for non-invasively assessing large artery stiffness. The state-of-the-art cf-PWV measuring devices necessitate expertise and are not pertinent for routine care in non-clinical settings. To address this gap, we have developed an acoustic plethysmography device for cf-PWV measurement. An in-vitro test on an arterial phantom was performed to ensure the device's reliability. Subsequently, an in-vivo study of 10 participants was conducted to assess the feasibility of the acquisition of the developed device. The in-vitro measurement accuracy was satisfactory, with a root mean square error of .4%. The in-vivo PWV results are consistent, with the normal ranges for the measured age group falling between 4 and 5.8 m/s. The beat-to-beat COV obtained from in-vitro and in-vivo studies were less than 4.2% and 4.86% respectively. The study's findings demonstrated that the proposed device has the potential to seamlessly provide cf-PWV. However, additional validation against the reference devices on a larger population is in progress and will be published in future publications.