The Use of Ultrasound Imaging in Continuous Blood Vessel Area and Velocity Data Acquisition for Determining the Local Pulse Wave Velocity

Pulse Wave Velocity (PWV) is a useful biomarker in the monitoring and risk stratification of various cardiovascular diseases including hypertension. The current gold standard for non-invasive is carotid-femoral PWV (cfPWV) measurement via direct tonometry. However, cfPWV is limited as it can only provide global and not local PWV measurement, hence an alternative local PWV measure is needed. One alternative is ultrasound whose good penetration depth, accessibility, low-cost nature makes it an ideal measurement mode for non-invasive, real-time acquisition of hemodynamic parameters to determine PWV. This paper will discuss the use of ultrasound imaging in vessel data acquisition, cover the different ultrasound-based imaging modalities for acquiring area and velocity data, and compare between simultaneous and non-simultaneous data acquisition for PWV estimation.