Sharif Digital Repository

It is proved that the endothelial (artery inner lumen cells) function is associated with cardiovascular risk factors. Among all the common non-invasive methods employed in the research setting for assessing endothelial function, flow-mediated dilation is the most widely used one. This technique measures endothelial function by inducing reactive hyperemia using temporary arterial occlusion and measuring the resultant relative increase in blood vessel diameter via ultrasound. In this paper, the limitations associated with the ultrasound technique are overcome by using the photoplethysmogram (PPG) signal recorded during FMD. The correctness of this approach is investigated by modeling the AC... 

Non-invasive measurement of flow-mediated dilation (FMD) in the brachial artery for assessing endothelial function is costly and operator-dependent, limiting its application to research cases. In this paper, an approach based on a physiological model between normalized central blood pressure and finger photoplethysmogram is presented. Baseline model parameters are estimated using a genetic algorithm in 30 subjects consisting of ten normal blood pressure (BP), ten high-BP and ten elderly volunteers. Beat-to-beat fitness values after reactive hyperaemia are calculated using baseline (before cuff occlusion) data. Results show that stimulus-induced changes are fairly described with a first order...