A New Method to Auto-estimation of Pulmonary Arterial Pressures

Objective: To assess the accuracy of audio signal processing system in noninvasive automatic estimation of pulmonary arterial pressure(PAP). Methods: Comparative studies among Doppler echocardiography, audio signal processing system (ASPS) and cardiac catheterization for predicting PAP have been done in 51 children with left-to-right shunting congenital heart disease. Results: Estimated pulmonary artery systolic and mean pressure adopting modified pulmonary to aortic flow time interval ratios (FPA/FAO) by ASPS correlated highly with those measured by cardiac catheterization (r=0.95,0.96, p<;0.001), were correlated better than those measured by Doppler echocardiography (r=0.86,0.86, p<; 0.001). Conclusions: PAP can be estimated noninvasively adopting modified FPA/FAO by ASPS.