Assessment of arterial stiffness via arterial pulse waveform

• Main Author: See, Clement Wei Xian.
• Other Authors: Yeo Joon Hock
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/46120
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Arterial stiffness is believed to contribute to age-related increases in the incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Therefore, this project aims to study the arterial pulse waveforms between the hypertensive and normotensive subjects of different age groups. In addition, this project attempts to establish normal ranges for various parameters. The first few chapters will discuss the background of hypertension and the analysis of arterial pulse waveform. Next, the description of the methodology for this project will be set out. With this background, the objectives of this project will be assessed in detail and evaluated. Subsequently, the analysis of ΔA60* which had been introduced by the previous final year project student will be discussed and the author’s improvements on this particular parameter shall be elaborated on. A total of 586 subjects’ arterial pulse waveforms have been consolidated for this project. However, 38 subjects’ data were considered errant and have been filtered out. Parameters such as SBP, MAP and CAP were plotted against age and regression analysis was used to study these 3 parameters. Such analysis evidenced that these 3 parameters increase with age. A new parameter which consists of sub-parameters such as ΔA60*, ΔA70*, ΔA80*, ΔA90* and ΔA100*, was introduced and investigated in this project. This new parameter is an improvement of the previous final year project, as it provides a better analysis of the subject matter investigated. The new parameter successfully established a normal range for the hypertensive group. The conclusion of the project acknowledges that in spite of the improvement in the accuracy of the results this project had set out to achieve, due to certain limitations which are further elaborated on in the final chapter, there is still potential for further accuracy in the study of the arterial pulse waveforms. The author also makes his recommendations on how such greater improvements may be attained.