Great attention has been placed on the role of carotid elasticity in cardiovascular risk evaluation. Since carotid pulse wave velocity (cPWV) value changes over cardiac cycle, non-invasive cPWV measurements at different cardiac cycle moments could be helpful for a full characterization of vascular behaviour. Aim of this study is to test a new accelerometric system for cPWV assessment able to estimate three different cPWV values. Moreover, preliminary results regarding their comparison with ultrasound carotid stiffness (CS) evaluation are presented.

Twelve healthy subjects (33.4±7.2 years, 50% males, BMI 22.7±3.5 kg/m²) have been recruited. CS values were obtained from ultrasound B-mode images analysed by contour tracking techniques together with tonometric local pulse pressure estimation and Bramwhell-Hill equation. A small device, with two percutaneous accelerometers (distance: 2.4 cm) placed on a soft bracket allowed to vibrate freely, was put on the neck of each subject. Temporal shifts between the two accelerometric signals were assessed on beat-to-beat temporal basis with correlation techniques. These temporal values allowed cPWV assessment for the whole cycle (allcPWV), diastolic (dcPWV) and dicrotic notch (dncPWV) phase.

Accelerometic allcPWV (3.81±0.70 m/s) values showed a good correlation with CS measurements (r=0.41) while dcPWV (3.26±0.97 m/s) and dncPWV (3.74±0.59 m/s) where less correlated with them (r=−0.17 and r=0.04 respectively). As we could expect dcPWV values were smaller than dncPWV ones.

In conclusion, the proposed system is easy-to-use and it could be useful for the evaluation of cPWV values characterizing the entire cardiac cycle, as well as diastolic and dicrotic notch phases.