Abstract
A new plethysmograph, the electric impedance cuff, was designed for the indirect measurement of blood pressure, volume elastic modulus Ev and compliance Ca in human limb arteries. This comprises a compression chamber filled with electrolyte solution and a tetrapolar electric impedance plethysmograph whose electrodes are placed inside the chamber; the former for controlling transmural arterial pressure Pt, and the latter for detecting total limb volume Vo, mean arterial volume\(\bar V_a \) and its variation ΔVa. Systolic and mean arterial pressure in the upper arms, forearms and fingers were measured by detecting pulsatile impedance variation during the gradual (3–5 mm Hg per heart beat) increase (or decrease) in chamber pressure by the volume oscillometric technique. Diastolic and pulse pressure ΔP were calculated from these pressure values. Compliance Ca=ΔV/ΔP and volume elastic modulus\(E_v = \Delta P/(\Delta V_a /\bar V_a )\) were recorded at various Pt levels, controlled by the compression pressure. Although this is a kind of impedance plethysmograph, the volume change in a limb segment can be detected by this method without passing electric current through the limb.
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Abbreviations
- C a :
-
arterial compliance in ml mm Hg−1, 100 ml−1
- E v :
-
volume elastic modulus in N m−2
- E * v :
-
volume elastic modulus measured by transmittance infra-red photoelectic plethysmography
- L :
-
distance between voltage electrodes
- ϕ:
-
resistivity of electrolyte solution
- P as :
-
systolic arterial pressure
- P ad :
-
diastolic arterial pressure
- ΔP :
-
pulse pressure
- P ch :
-
compression chamber pressure
- P t :
-
arterial transmural pressure
- V 0 :
-
total limb volume
- V a :
-
arterial volume
- V aO :
-
total limb volume measured at the chamber pressure beyond the systolic pressure level
- V s :
-
volume of the electrolyte column in the chamber
- V t :
-
total volume of the acrylic cylinder between voltage electrodes
- ΔV :
-
volume change in the limb segment
- ΔV a :
-
pulsatile volume change
- \(\bar V_a \) :
-
mean arterial volume
- Z 0 :
-
total impedance of the electrolyte column
- ΔZ :
-
impedance variation
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Shimazu, H., Kawarada, A., Ito, H. et al. Electric impedance cuff for the indirect measurement of blood pressure and volume elastic modulus in human limb and finger arteries. Med. Biol. Eng. Comput. 27, 477–483 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02441465
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02441465