The assessment of local hemodynamics, namely in the carotid artery, has recently gained clinical relevance due to its significance in the development of coronary and cerebrovascular diseases. Local pulse wave velocity (PWV) constitutes one of the most important indices in carotid stiffness evaluation, but currently available devices require high technical expertise and specialized imaging technologies.

This paper proposes two novel electromechanical double headed probes for non-invasive measurement of local PWV. The PWV is assessed in a single location and implies the determination of the time delay between the signals acquired simultaneously by either two acoustic or two piezoelectric sensors, namely placed 11 mm and 15 mm apart, at the carotid site.

The acoustic probe (AP) and the piezoelectric probe (PZP) were tested in 20 healthy volunteers aged 22.12 ± 1.96 years. Carotid PWV along with other time-based hemodynamic parameters were estimated. The values were also compared with carotid-femoral PWV measurements using a Complior device.

The mean local PWVs obtained were lower than those achieved in other studies, exhibiting values of 3.05 ± 0.96 ms-1 for the AP and 3.01 ± 0.77 ms-1 for the PZP. These results demonstrated that AP and PZP PWVs were linearly correlated, presenting a significant and strong relationship (R=0.76, p<0.01). Contrarily, these values were non-statistically significant with Complior PWV, presenting negative and very weak relationships (p>0.05).

Although studies will be extended to a more significant number of patients to differentiate between ages and healthy/non-healthy groups, these probes appear to be promising alternatives to local PWV stand-alone devices.