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METHODS article

Front. Cardiovasc. Med.
Sec. General Cardiovascular Medicine
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2025.1481836

Phonocardiography Based Pulse Wave Velocity System for Non-Occlusive Assessment of Arterial Stiffness

Provisionally accepted
Corina Margain Corina Margain 1Emily Powell Emily Powell 1Alexandra Clark Alexandra Clark 2Adam Bush Adam Bush 1*
  • 1 Department of Biomedical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States
  • 2 Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Arterial stiffness is strongly associated with vascular aging and pathology and can be assessed in many ways. Existing devices for measuring central arterial stiffness, such as carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV), are limited by high costs and the need for specialized expertise, limiting widespread clinical adoption. This study introduces a semi-and non-occlusive PWV measurement system using phonocardiography (PCG) and plethysmography (PPG) and a single femoral pressure cuff, aiming to address these limitations. We conducted a study comparing a semi-occlusive (carotidfemoral PWV) and a non-occlusive (carotid-toe PWV) PCG-based PWV measurements across a cohort of 63 volunteers, as compared to literature reference PWV values. Results demonstrated strong correlations between our PCG-based PWV measures (PWVcarotid-femoral: 8.42 ± 3.99 m/s vs. PWVcarotid-toe: 10.62 ± 3.86 m/s) with age as a significant predictor (PWVcarotid-femoral: r 2 =0.45; PWVcarotid-toe: r 2 =0.28, p < 0.05). Ultrasound measured distensibility assessments confirmed the reliability of our PCG approach in reflecting central arterial stiffness dynamics, particularly at the aortic level. Test-retest reliability analyses yielded high intraclass correlation coefficients (0.75 ≤ ICC ≤90), indicating robust repeatability of our method. This study highlights the feasibility and accuracy of our low-cost, semi and non-occlusive PWV measurement systems to enhance accessibility in arterial stiffness assessments, potentially easing cardiovascular risk stratification.

    Keywords: arterial stiffness, pulse wave velocity, Phonocardiography, Plethysmography, Cardiovascular health

    Received: 16 Aug 2024; Accepted: 07 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Margain, Powell, Clark and Bush. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Adam Bush, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, 78712, Texas, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.