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The representation of blood pressure pulse as a combination of solitons captures many of the phenomena observed during its propagation along the systemic circulation. The aim of this work is to analyze the applicability of a compartmental model for propagation regarding the pressure pulse amplification associated with arterial aging. The model was applied to blood pressure waveforms that were synthesized using solitons, and then validated by waveforms obtained from individuals from differentiated age groups. Morphological changes were verified in the blood pressure waveform as a consequence of the aging process (i.e. due to the increase in arterial stiffness). These changes are the result of both a nonlinear interaction and the phenomena present in the propagation of nonlinear mechanic waves.

The scope of this work is to show another way to grouping population with clinical variables measured in health centres and to assign a cardiovascular risk indicator. To do this, two different datasets were used, one coming from France and another coming from Uruguay. The well proved Framingham index was used to validate the results. The preliminary results are very auspicious to encourage the research and get deeper knowledge of the cardiovascular risk indicators.

Arterial vascular beds can be characterized considering the arterial segments in terms of their physical properties. These and other trees have an open structure based on repeated bifurcations, following fractal rules. Fractal dimension (FD) quantifies the time series complexity defined by its geometrical representation. Objective: To evaluate the arterial pressure and diameter time series in order to assess the influence of arterial tree structure in arterial pressure fractal dimension (FD). Methods: Simultaneous aortic pressure and diameter were measured in 14 conscious dogs. A pair of ultrasonic crystals, a pressure microtransducer and a pneumatic cuff occluder were positioned in the upper third of the descending aorta. Results: Total reflection induced by the occlusion maneuver decreased FD concomitant to the aortic stiffening and early wave reflection. Conclusion: Arterial pressure fractality is highly dependent on the arterial tree structure.

The advent of vascular diseases, such as hypertension and atherosclerosis, is associated to significant alterations in the physical properties of arterial vessels. Evaluation of arterial biomechanical behaviour is related to the assessment of three representative indices: arterial compliance, arterial distensibility and arterial stiffness index. Elasticity is the most important mechanical property of the arterial wall, whose natures is strictly non-linear. Intervention of elastin and collagen fibres, passive constituent elements of the arterial wall, is related to the applied wall stress level. Concerning this, appropriate tools are required to analyse the temporal dynamics of the signals involved, in order to characterize the whole phenomenon. Fractal geometry can be mentioned as one of those techniques. The aim of this study consisted on arterial pressure and diameter signals processing, by means of nonlinear techniques based on fractal geometry. Time series morphology was related to different arterial stiffness states, generated by means of blood flow variations, during experiences performed in vitro.

Previous experiences in animals showed a different behavior between the variability of pressure, arterial diameter and elasticity when they were registered for a couple of hours. To better understand arterial mechanics variability, we propose to measure simultaneously aortic pressure and diameter during 24 hours in a sheep. For that purpose, we developed a portable prototype device. It allows continuously recording physiological signals throughout the day and storing them in a solid state memory for later analysis. Pulse wave velocity and Peterson modulus were assessed beat-to-beat as arterial stiffness indexes. We identified 53,762 heart beats during 24 hours that were separated into 2 groups: below or above median mean pressure (71 mmHg). Mean diameter, pulse wave velocity and Peterson modulus increased for higher pressure values (p

Traditional risk factors are involved in the development of coronary artery disease (CAD), but geometrical risk factors have also proved to be determinant. In this work we present a new method to construct a 3D map of the left coronary artery tree using CT image processing and skeletonization techniques. We computed cumulative length-volume functions through the coronary tree bifurcations and also the relationships between total tree volumes, total length, number of segments and bifurcations with respect to the presence and severity of atherosclerotic plaques. A total of 65 patients, 40 with and 20 without CAD were recruited. We found more vascular segments and bifurcations per patient in the CAD group. Accordingly, total cumulative length was longer in CAD patients (p

Increased arterial stiffness is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events. Estimation of arterial stiffness using local pulse wave velocity (PWV) promises to be very useful for noninvasive diagnosis of arteriosclerosis. In this work we estimated in an instrumented sheep, the local aortic pulse wave velocity using two sonomicrometry diameter sensors (separated 7.5 cm) according to the transit time method (PWVTT) with a sampling rate of 4 KHz. We simultaneously measured aortic pressure in order to determine from pressure-diameter loops (PWVPDLoop), the true local aortic pulse wave velocity. A pneumatic cuff occluder was implanted in the aorta in order to compare both methods under a wide range of pressure levels. Mean pressure values ranged from 47 to 101 mmHg and mean proximal diameter values from 12.5. to 15.2 mm. There were no significant differences between PWVTT and PWVPDLoop values (451?43 vs. 447?48 cm/s, p = ns, paired t-test). Both methods correlated significantly (R = 0.81, p

Endothelial function can be assessed non-invasively with ultrasound, analyzing the change of brachial diameter in response to transient forearm ischemia. We propose a new technique based in the same principle, but analyzing a continuous recording of carotid-radial pulse wave velocity (PWV) instead of diameter. PWV was measured on 10 healthy subjects of 22±2 years before and after 5 minutes forearm occlusion. After 59 ± 31 seconds of cuff release PWV decreased 21 ± 9% compared to baseline, reestablishing the same after 533 ± 65 seconds. There were no significant changes observed in blood pressure. When repeating the study one hour later in 5 subjects, we obtained a coefficient of repeatability of 4.8%. In conclusion, through analysis of beat to beat carotid-radial PWV it was possible to characterize the temporal profiles and analyze the acute changes in response to a reactive hyperemia. The results show that the technique has a high sensitivity and repeatability.

Ergometric exercise stress tests (EST) give important information about the cardiovascular (CV) response to increased demands. The expected EST-related changes in variables like blood pressure and heart rate are known, but those in the arterial biomechanics are controversial and incompletely characterized. In this context, this work aims were to characterize the regional and local arterial biomechanical behaviour in response to EST; to evaluate its temporal profile in the post-EST recovery phase; and to compare the biomechanical response of different to EST. Methods: In 16 non-trained healthy young subjects the carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity and the carotid, femoral and brachial arterial distensibility were non-invasively evaluated before (Rest) and after EST. Main results: The EST resulted in an early increase in the arterial stiffness, evidenced by both, regional and local parameters (pulse wave velocity increase and distensibility reduction). When analyzing conjunctly the different post-EST recovery stages there were quali-quantitative differences among the arterial local stiffness response to EST. The biomechanical changes could not be explained only by blood pressure variations.