Pulse wave velocity (PWV) PWV is measured with a SphygmoCor CPVH System from AtCor Medical (Lisle,
IL). ECG leads are applied to the chest, then distance from the lowest portion of
the sternal notch to the carotid, radial, femoral & foot (dorsalis pedis or posterior
tibial) artery sites is measured to the nearest 0.1 cm 3 times using a tape measure,
averaged and entered into the software. Next, a pressure wave form is obtained
for the proximal site. Finally, a second arterial waveform is recorded from the
distal artery. The waveforms are gated by the R-wave on the simultaneously
recorded ECG. PWV is the difference in the carotid-to-distal path length divided
by the difference in R-wave-to-waveform foot times. The average of 10
measurements is used in the analyses to cover a complete respiratory cycle. An
average of three PWV values is used for the analysis of the different PWV of the
arm (carotid-radial) trunk (carotid-femoral) and lower extremity (carotid-foot
minus carotid-femoral). Reproducibility of the SphygmoCor device has been
published previously. Bland-Altman analyses of reproducibility yielded
repeatability coefficient for aortic PWV of 2.34m/sec (for mean value of
8.15±3.01 m/sec) with between-observer values of 2.50 m/sec. This demonstrates
excellent agreement at an average PWV near 5 m/sec measured in healthy
children.
5.1.8.1.2.
