Objective

Arterial stiffness and endothelial function are two established surrogate markers of subclinical atherosclerosis and are quantified by three arterial parameters: elasticity, viscosity and radius of the arterial wall. Yet, the current methods for their assessment are unsuitable for routine use. Post-exercise response of the cardiovascular (CV) system serves as a more sensitive detection of subclinical arterial abnormalities that are not apparent at-rest. The objective of this study is to propose a novel method that can measure post-exercise response of arterial parameters and is also suitable for routine use.

Approach

A microfluidic tactile sensor with a location-insensitive configuration was used for arterial pulse signal measurements on six asymptomatic male subjects, offering measurement reliability, ease use by a layperson, and affordability. By treating the arterial pulse signal as a vibration signal of the arterial wall, vibration-model-based analysis of only one measured pulse signal with no calibration was conducted for simultaneous estimation of three arterial parameters. Exercise-intensity-normalized percent changes in arterial parameters were utilized to remove the influence of variation in exercise intensity on post-exercise response, and then their measured values were compared for difference in post-exercise response between the subjects.

Main Results

One subject who was obese, on subject who had insomnia, and the oldest subject in the study demonstrated differences in post-exercise response at the radial artery (RA), as compared with the three subjects free of those three factors. Despite a lack of statistical significance, the observed difference at the RA between subjects was supported by (i) their consistency with the related findings in the literature, and (ii) their consistency with the measured values at the carotid artery (CA) and superficial temporal artery (STA) and the anatomical difference between the three arteries.

Significance

The proposed method has the potential of offering an affordable and convenient diagnosis tool for routine arterial health assessment.

中文翻译：

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运动后对动脉参数的响应，用于使用微流体触觉传感器和基于振动模型的分析进行动脉健康评估：概念验证研究。

目的

动脉僵硬度和内皮功能是亚临床动脉粥样硬化的两个已确立的替代指标，并通过三个动脉参数进行量化：动脉壁的弹性，粘度和半径。但是，当前的评估方法不适合常规使用。运动后的心血管（CV）系统反应可更灵敏地检测静止时不明显的亚临床动脉异常。这项研究的目的是提出一种新方法，该方法可以测量运动参数对运动后的反应，并且还适合常规使用。

方法

具有位置不敏感配置的微流触觉传感器用于对六个无症状男性受试者的动脉脉冲信号测量，从而提供了测量可靠性，方便外行使用和负担得起的价格。通过将动脉脉搏信号视为动脉壁的振动信号，仅对一个测得的脉搏信号进行了基于振动模型的分析，没有进行校准，以同时估算三个动脉参数。利用运动强度归一化的动脉参数百分比变化来消除运动强度变化对运动后反应的影响，然后比较它们的测量值之间受试者之间运动后反应的差异。

主要结果

与没有该三个因素的三个受试者相比，肥胖的受试者，失眠的受试者和研究中年龄最大的受试者表现出the动脉（RA）的运动后反应差异。尽管缺乏统计学意义，但受试者之间在RA处观察到的差异受到以下支持：（i）与文献中相关发现的一致性，以及（ii）与颈动脉（CA）和浅表的测量值的一致性颞动脉（STA）与三个动脉之间的解剖差异。

意义

所提出的方法具有为常规动脉健康评估提供负担得起且方便的诊断工具的潜力。