Comparison of segmental arterial compliance determined with three and four element Windkessel models

This paper describes the use of the three and four elements Windkessel models (Wk-3 and Wk-4, respectively) for the determination of arterial compliance of the brachial to radial arterial segment in healthy and hypertensive subjects. The applied method is noninvasive and only needs the acquisition of two pressure pulse waveforms. The results showed that both models yielded compliance values coherent with their clinical conditions. The Akaike Information criterion and Schwarz criterion indicate that the Wk-4 fit the predicted pressure pulse waveform better than Wk-3.