Brachial occlusion method for non-invasive diagnostics of cardiovascular system

Abstract

In this interdisciplinary habilitation thesis, several problematics associated with the cardiovascular system (CVS) diagnostics using the innovated brachial cuff occlusion method of measuring pressure pulsations are addressed. The thesis contains a commented overview of the author's published works in this field. The proposals of appropriate methodologies and algorithms based on the signal processing of the blood pressure (BP) pulsations obtained using the technology, with the aim of identification of some CVS pathologies, are introduced and compared with state-of-the art technologies. The presented results indicate the possibilities of successful using the method for blood pressure measurement in patients with heart failure, especially in patients with an implanted continuous flow left ventricular assist devices (CF-LVAD), in whom current standard methods fail. Other promising results have been observed when measuring hemodynamic parameters of CVS, especially pulse wave velocity (PWV) and cardiac output (CO), where the preliminary results show a high degree of agreement with the gold standard methods, with the great advantages of being non-invasive and easy to use in clinical practice. The proposed diagnostic methodologies could become part of screening medicine and contribute to diagnosis of some cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and dysfunctions in early stages, such as hypertension or arteriosclerosis. Perspective direction of research in this area are mentioned at the end of the thesis.