Reactive Hyperemia-Triggered Wrist Pulse Analysis for Early Monitoring of Young Men with High Atherosclerotic Risk

Jian-Jung Chen; Hsien-Tsai Wu; Bagus Haryadi

doi:10.3390/diagnostics11101918

Reactive Hyperemia-Triggered Wrist Pulse Analysis for Early Monitoring of Young Men with High Atherosclerotic Risk

Diagnostics (Basel). 2021 Oct 16;11(10):1918. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics11101918.

Authors

Jian-Jung Chen^{1

2}, Hsien-Tsai Wu³, Bagus Haryadi^{3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Taichung Tzuchi Hospital, The Buddhist Tzuchi Medical Foundation, Taichung 42743, Taiwan.
² School of Post-Baccalaureate Chinese Medicine, Tzu Chi University, Hualien 97002, Taiwan.
³ Department of Electrical Engineering, Dong Hwa University, No. 1, Sec. 2, Da Hsueh Rd., Hualien 97401, Taiwan.
⁴ Department of Physics, Universitas Ahmad Dahlan, Jendral A. Yani Street, Kragilan, Tamanan, Kec. Banguntapan, Bantul, Yogyakarta 55191, Indonesia.

Abstract

The high prevalence of cardiovascular disease in young adults has raised significant concern regarding the early identification of risk factors to allow for timely intervention. This study aimed to identify young males at risk of atherosclerosis using a noninvasive instrument and an initial application percussion entropy analysis of the wrist pressure pulse (WPP). In total, 49 young males aged 18 to 28, without any known history of vascular disease, were recruited. Blood samples were obtained whereby a TC/HDL cutoff value of 4 was used to divide the young men into low-risk (Group 1, TC/HDL < 4, N = 32) and high-risk (Group 2, TC/HDL ≥ 4, N = 17) groups regarding atherosclerosis. The reactive hyperemia-triggered WPPs were measured using a modified air-pressure-sensing system (MAPSS). The dilation index (DI) of the endothelial function and percussion entropy index (PEI) of the heart rate variability (HRV) assessments, calculated using pragmatic signal-processing techniques, were compared between the two groups. The nonparametric Mann-Whitney U test showed that the DI and PEI of the two groups showed statistical differences (both p < 0.05). Not only could the MAPSS assess endothelial function and HRV in young males, but the results also showed that waist circumference and PEI may serve as indicators for the early identification of young males at risk of atherosclerosis.

Keywords: cardiovascular disease (CVD); dilation index (DI); endothelial dysfunction (ED); heart rate variability (HRV); reactive hyperemia; wrist pressure pulse (WPP).