Photoplethysmography and electrocardiography for real time evaluation of pulse transit time A diagnostic marker of peripheral vascular diseases

In this work, we report the results of a project, devoted to the development of a real time analysis for non-invasive monitoring of pulse transit time values on people affected by peripheral vascular diseases. Pulse transit time was computed as the time difference between every R-peak of the electrocardiographic signal and the following photopletysmographic peak. Both types of signals were acquired from 12 volunteers and real time signal analysis was performed in LabVIEW. Pathological conditions were simulated on every individual by means of an external cuff pressure applied on their arm. As expected, a PTT increase for increasing values of applied pressure was observed for all the volunteers. The proposed real time analysis could be suggested as a new, non-invasive optical method for real time monitoring of pulse transit time on patients affected by peripheral vascular diseases.