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Beat‐to‐beat measurement of the finger arterial pressure pulse shape index at rest and during exercise
Author(s) -
Raamat Rein,
Jagomägi Kersti,
Talts Jaak,
Toska Karin,
Walløe Lars
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
clinical physiology and functional imaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.608
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1475-097X
pISSN - 1475-0961
DOI - 10.1046/j.1475-097x.2003.00474.x
Subject(s) - medicine , supine position , blood pressure , photoplethysmogram , brachial artery , cardiology , anesthesia , filter (signal processing) , computer science , computer vision
Summary Arterial pressure waveform can be characterized by the pulse shape index k pulse determined as k pulse = ( P mean − P diast ) / ( P syst − P diast ). For brachial artery, the shape index value of 0·33 is usually applied to approximate P mean from the measured P syst and P diast . Our purpose was to test whether this value can validly be applied to finger vascular beds under different experimental conditions. By using Finapres ® , we non‐invasively estimated the beat‐to‐beat values of k pulse in the fingers of young healthy persons in supine position at rest and during a 4‐min moderate exercise (rhythmical exercise with the quadricep muscles in combination with handgrip compression). To detect intensive peripheral vasoconstrictions, a laser‐Doppler probe was attached to the thumb pulp of the same hand. Periods of 30 s without intensive vasoconstriction for rest, different stages of exercise and recovery were involved in the analysis in every subject. The results demonstrated that the group‐averaged value of k pulse (median with a 95% confidence interval) in the fingers of 11 healthy volunteers aged from 20 to 24, equalled 0·33 (0·31– 0·34), 0·31 (0·28–0·34), 0·35 (0·33–0·39) and 0·38 (0·34–0·43) for rest, first and second stages of exercise and recovery, respectively. We conclude that in the fingers of young healthy persons in supine position formula P mean = P diast + 1/3 ( P syst − P diast ) gives an adequate approximation for rest and low intensity exercise (first stage), and slightly underestimates the actual finger mean blood pressure during moderate exercise (second stage) and recovery.