Characterization and calibration of the central arterial pressure waveform obtained from vibrocardiographic signal

Laser Doppler Vibrometry (LDV) has been demonstrated to be a non-contact technique with high sensitivity, able to measure the skin vibrations related to cardiac activity. The obtainable mechanical signal (i.e. a velocity signal), VibroCardioGram (VCG), is able to provide significant physiological parameters, such as Heart Rate (HR). In this work, the authors aim to present a non-contact measurement method to obtain the arterial blood pressure signal from the mechanical vibrations assessed by LDV, in a central district of the arterial tree, such as carotid artery. In fact, in this way it is possible to indirectly assess Central Arterial Blood Pressure (CABP), which indicates the hemodynamic load on the heart, so that it is considered an important index predicting the cardiac risk of a subject. The measurement setup involves the use of an oscillometric cuff, to measure peripheral blood pressure at the radial artery level. Diastolic and Mean Arterial Pressure (MAP) at radial level were used to calibrate the integrated LDV signal (i.e. a displacement signal). As regard calibration, an exponential mathematical model was adopted to derive the pressure waveform from the displacement of the vessel detected by LDV. Results show an average difference of around 20% between systolic pressure measured at brachial level (i.e. peripheral pressure value) and systolic pressure derived from VCG signal measured over the carotid artery (i.e. central pressure). This is a physiological difference, consistent with the literature about the physiological increase of Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP) and Pressure Pulse (PP) at increased distances from the heart. However, this non-contact technique is affected by movement artifacts and by reflection phenomena not related to the studied vessel and so it is necessary to account of such issues in the results.