Abstract

Abstract
Blood pressure (BP) determination is a fundamental parameter in cardiovascular assessment. The gold standard method to measure BP is based on the inflatable arm cuff, however has several disadvantages for continuous monitoring. New techniques were developed to overcome these limitations using correlations between the pulse transit time (PTT) and BP. This work draws attention to the PTT rationale using several methods. In order to determine the PTT, an electrocardiogram (ECG) was used combined with multiple photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors applied to different arm locations, these signals were acquired with a bioPLUX device. The Ultrassound system (SonoSite Edge) was used to measure the artery diameter. As reference, BP was measured using a cuff- based sphygmomanometric device. Measurements were performed in a study population of 36 volunteers. The correlation coefficient for DBP determined and DBP measured was r = 0,689. The results suggest PTT deduced from different locations can be used to measure BP.

Abstract
The great incidence of cardiovascular (CV) diseases in the world spurs the search for new solutions to enable an early detection of pathological processes and provides more precise diagnosis based in multi-parameters assessment. The pulse wave velocity (PWV) is considered one of the most important clinical parameters for evaluate the CV risk, vascular adaptation, and therapeutic efficacy. Several studies were dedicated to find the relationship between PWV measurement and pathological status in different diseases, and proved the relevance of this parameter. The commercial devices dedicate to PWV estimation make a regional assessment (measured between two vessels), however a local measurement is more precise evaluation of artery condition, taking into account the differences in the structure of arteries. Moreover, the current devices present some limitations due to the contact nature. Emerging trends in CV monitoring are moving away from more invasive technologies to non-invasive and non-contact solutions. The great challenge is to explore the new instrumental solutions that allow the PWV assessment with fewer approximations for an accurately evaluation and relatively inexpensive techniques in order to be used in the clinical routine.

Abstract

Abstract

Abstract
This chapter surveys methodologies for the segmentation of carotid ultrasound images and describes a method for the semiautomatic detection of the lumen-intima and the media-adventitia interfaces of the near and far common carotid wall. The approach is based on feature extraction, fitting of cubic splines, dynamic programming, smooth intensity thresholding surfaces, and geometric snakes. A set of 47 B-mode images of the common carotid were used to assess the performance of the method. The detection errors are similar to the ones observed in manual segmentations for 95% of the far wall interfaces and 73% of the near wall interfaces. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. All rights are reserved.