Pulse Wave Velocity Estimation Through Viscoelastic Behavior Analysis of an Arterial Surrogate with Variable Stiffness: a Validation Study

In clinical practice, Pulse Wave Velocity (PWV) is an important index for assessing arterial stiffness, a key indicator of cardiovascular health. Arterial simulators represent useful tools for studying the correlation between PWV and other hemodynamic quantities. In this regard, the study presents a method for evaluating PWV in an arterial surrogate housed in an arterial simulator that allows the adjustment of the surrogate stiffness. The approach is based on analyzing the damping effect that the viscoelastic behavior of the conduit has on the pressure wave during its propagation inside the vessel. PWV values obtained were compared with those derived from a well-known method widely used in literature for this purpose and, therefore, assumed as the reference method. Results show a good agreement between the two methods, with an absolute percentage error of up to 2.5%. The maximum relative uncertainty of the proposed method is 5.9% compared to that of the reference method, which reaches 1.4%.