Blood pulse wave velocity (PWV) is a known index of arterial rigidity and its measurement has proved its usefulness in the study of some cardiovascular pathologies. In this study we describe the design and implementation of a system for noninvasive PWV determination in the aorto-braqui-humero-radial (A-->h), aorto-ileo-femoro-pedial (A-->f) and aorto-carotid (A-->c) regions. This system was examined with 36 normotensives (NT) and 34 hypertensives (HT) patients with (LVH, n = 20) and without (WLVH, n = 14) left ventricular hypertrofy. The equipment consist of a personal computer with an analog to digital converter and hardware and software items adapted to take simultaneously the electrocardiogram (ECG), two photopletismographic pulses and one oscilometric pulse. The Q-pP interval (time between a Q ECG wave and distal blood pulse) and the distance to the register sites are taken into account to calculate the beginning of cardiac prexpulsive period (time zero of pulse trip) which allow the determination of the PWV (in meters/second) from the aortic root to the distal point of the via. PWV was significant higher (p < 0.001) in HT vs. NT (A-->h: 9.3 +/- 2.6 vs. 7.2 +/- 0.8, A-->c: 9.5 +/- 2.8 vs. 6.0 +/- 1.9 and A-->f: 9.5 +/- 1.8 vs. 7.2 +/- 0.9) in each evaluated arterial region. Same thing occurred in cases with LVH vs. WLVH (A-->h: 10.5 +/- 1.6 vs. 8.0 +/- 1.9, A-->c: 10.2 +/- 1.9 vs. 8.0 +/- 1.9 and A-->f: 10.5 +/- 2.0 vs. 8.6 +/- 1.2) (p < 0.025). This is consistent with the relationship more pressure [symbol: see text] more rigidity and with other reports. This method may have clinical application.