Physics of Within-Tissue Wave Propagation Generated by Pulse Propagation in the Carotid Artery

Tommasin Tommasin,Verhegghe Verhegghe,Segers Segers,Greenwald Greenwald,Caenen Caenen

doi:10.3390/app9142878

Tommasin Tommasin, Verhegghe Verhegghe + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/app9142878

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Abstract

(1) Background: We aimed to assess the validity of laser Doppler vibrometry (LDV) as an emerging method to measure the local pulse wave velocity (PWV) from skin displacement generated by the pressure pulse inside an underlying artery. (2) Methods: A finite element model representing a simplified common carotid artery embedded within a soft tissue mimicking material was used to reproduce how tissue motions due to a wave propagation along the artery radiates to the skin surface. A parametric study was set up, varying: (i) the pressure conditions inside the artery (shock and traveling pressure impulse), (ii) the arterial depth and (iii) the geometry in a patient-specific artery model. (3) Results: under all conditions, the arterial pulse induced primary and secondary waves at the skin surface; of which the propagation speed deviated from the imposed PWV (deviations between −5.0% to 47.0% for the primary wave front). (4) Conclusions: the propagation of a short pressure impulse induced complex skin displacement patterns revealing a complicated link between PWV and measured propagation speeds at the skin surface. Wave propagation at the skin level may convey information about arterial PWV, however, advanced signal analysis techniques will be necessary to extract local PWV values.

Highlights

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death worldwide and contributes substantially to morbidity, disability and death in patients [1]
The clinical “gold standard” method for evaluating arterial stiffness is carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWVc-f ), calculated as the ratio of the distance between the carotid and femoral measuring sites, and the time taken for the arterial pulse to propagate from the carotid to the femoral artery [5,6,7]
laser Doppler vibrometry (LDV) measurements have been performed with a two-beam LDV both in vitro, and in vivo (CCA in healthy volunteers) [16,17]

Summary

Introduction

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death worldwide and contributes substantially to morbidity, disability and death in patients [1]. A particular aim of such studies is to prevent the development of CVD at a young age [2,3]. There is compelling evidence that arterial stiffness is a biomarker that carries prognostic power above and beyond these classical risk factors [4]. Different devices are available to measure these pulse waveforms, but current methods have methodological issues (there is no unequivocal path between the carotid and femoral artery, and the measurement basically excludes the most distensible proximal aorta).

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