The Development of a Measurement and Analysis System for Carotid Pulse

The cerebral vascular disease is one of the leading causes of death in the developed countries; therefore, the early detection and prevention is very important. At present, the diagnosis of the carotid artery is mainly by the supersonic wave or the invasion-like examination method. The purpose of this study is to design a non-invasive carotid pulse measurement and analysis system with the lower cost, the convenience of carrying, the high degree of accuracy and the stability of measurement. Using the Augmentation Index (AIx) method to analyze the stiffness of the carotid and radial artery, we verify the stable characteristics of the system. Besides, we find the high correlation (correlation coefficient = 0.89, p<0.001) of AIx between carotid pulse and radial pulse. It implies that we can get the information of arterial stiffness from the easily measured radial pulse rather than the carotid pulse, which is not convenient to be detected. Therefore, the result is useful in the application of healthcare.