Analysis of the arterial pulse in clinical medicine is based on palpation and interpretation of the radial pulse over millennia, on invasive measurement of pressure and flow waves in experimental animals over the past century, and on analysis of waveforms in the frequency domain, together with computerized modelling over the past 50 years. Interpretation of the arterial pulse in the radial and other arteries now approaches the same acceptance as the electrocardiogram, and has the potential for similar clinical value.

Left ventricular properties can be interpreted from the rate and extent of the initial pressure rise, and from the duration of ejection. Magnitude and timing of wave reflection, created in the arterial tree can be inferred from secondary rise of the pressure wave in late systole or during the period of diastole. Ill effects of arterial stiffening on the left ventricle and on microvessels of the brain and kidneys can be interpreted from the pulse waveform, and effects of therapy monitored.

Clinicians are now in a position to achieve the aims of Frederick Mahomed, who in 1872 wrote about the radial artery pulse “… surely it must be to our advantage to appreciate fully all it tells us, and to draw from it all that is capable of imparting.”