Methods for arterial stiffness detection

Cardiovascular diseases are the number one killer in Germany. Diseases of the vascular system, especially atherosclerosis, often run time imperceptible or unrecognized. Ultimately, it leads quite often to a heart attack, stroke, or pulmonary embolism. The detection of the arterial stiffness is one of the important steps in the prevention from these cardiovascular complications. The early screening of the individuals will help in the detection of the disease before further complications occur and the benefit of the medication may be useful. There are many methods for the identification of the individuals with arterial stiffness but till now they are not applicable for the screening and detection for the general population. We have introduced methods and algorithms that have the ability for the arterial stiffness predication non-invasively. We have made two methods for estimating major risk factors which are the major determinant of the risk of the arterial stiffness. The estimated risk parameters are measured from piezoelectric sensor in the neck and photoplethysmography in the finger. The identification of rising edge of the signal form the piezoeclectric sensor and the area under the catacrotic phase of the photoplethysmogram pulse were estimated as indication of the cardiovascular disease risk. These two parameters were used with the major defined risk factors for the identification of the patients through the use of the neural network. The risk factors parameters go through neural network algorithm for the classification of individuals. The performance for identification was promising and the accuracy is relatively high when compared with other methods. The proposed methods showed inexpensive, reliable, fast measurements, independent of the operator skill and applicable for wide population screening and comfortable for long follow up of the patient’s status in response for medications. We conclude that the general screening of the individuals at an early stage of arterial stiffness can avoid the arteriosclerosis and the use of the simple devices can be adequate to reach this aim.