Difference in pulse arrival time at forehead and at finger as a surrogate of pulse transit time

Abstract

Pulse transit time (PTT) difference (PTTD) to the forehead and finger dynamics are compared to pulse arrival time towards the finger (PATF) dynamics during a tilt table test. Two frequency bands, where different physiological information is expected, are analyzed: low frequency (LF) influenced by both sympathetic and parasympathetic activity, and high frequency (HF) influenced by parasympathetic activity. As PATF, PTTD is influenced by PTT, but in contrast to PATF, PTTD is not influenced by the pre-ejection period (PEP). This is advantaging in certain applications such as arterial stiffness assessment or blood pressure estimation. Results showed higher correlation between PTTD and PATF during rest stages than during tilt stage, when the PEP dynamics have stronger effect in PATF dynamics. This suggests that PTTD variability can potentially be a surrogate of PTT variability that is not influenced by PEP, which is advantaging in the previously mentioned applications. However, further studies must be elaborated in order to evaluate the potential of PTTD in such specific applications.