New methods of one-point measurement of pulse wave velocity

Conventional on-line methods of measuring pulse wave velocity (PWV) have mainly been based on "two-point" measurements. This work presents two methods by which "one-point" measurements can be made. The principle of the first method is to measure blood pressure and velocity at a point, and use the water-hammer equation for forward traveling waves. The principle of the second method is to derive PWV from a coefficient of elasticity of the artery. We applied the methods to the common carotid artery in 13 normal humans. The regression line of the PWV (m/s) obtained by the former method on the PWV (m/s) obtained by the latter method was y = 1.03x - 0.90 (R²=0.83). Although regional PWV in the human carotid artery has not been reported so far, the correlation between the PWV\´s obtained by the present methods was so high that we are convinced of the validity of these methods.