Abstract
PURPOSE: Pulse transit time (PTT) is crucial in developing non-invasive cuffless blood pressure (BP) measurement devices. Sympathetic activation, due to its effect on PTT, can lead to erroneous estimation of BP. Sympathetic activation might affect the PTT differentially depending on the site where PTT is measured in the upper limb. This study aimed to decipher regional variation in PTT in response to sympathetic activation in three segments of the upper limb arteries. Exposure to graded lower body negative pressure (LBNP) at hypotensive (-30 mmHg and -40 mmHg) and non-hypotensive (-10 mmHg and -20 mmHg) levels has been used to produce sympathetic activation. METHODS: This was a pilot study. Ten healthy subjects were recruited for the study, and recordings were done. Carotid, brachial, and radial pulse waveforms were recorded simultaneously by tonometry, and the finger pulse waveform was recorded by photoplethysmography (PPG). LBNP was applied at -10 mmHg, -20 mmHg, -30 mmHg, and -40 mmHg for two minutes. Carotid-brachial PTT (cbPTT), brachial-radial PTT (brPTT), and radial-finger PTT (rfPTT) were calculated. RESULTS: cbPTT did not show any significant change, whereas both brPTT (0.02679±0.00635 sec at baseline vs. 0.02027±0.00662 sec at hypotensive LBNP; p=0.0386) and rfPTT (0.00908±0.00350 sec at baseline vs. 0.00585±0.00211 sec at hypotensive LBNP; p=0.003) showed a significant decrease in response to hypotensive LBNP. rfPTT (0.00908±0.00350 at baseline vs. 0.00534±0.00249s at non-hypotensive LBNP; p=0.0257) also showed a significant decline in response to non-hypotensive LBNP as well. CONCLUSION: The current study reveals that in upper limb arteries, PTT response to LBNP shows regional variation with an accentuation of response from proximal to distal segments.