Vascular graft system and a method of processing an arterial pressure pulse trace
AssigneesHong Kong Centre for Cerebro-Cardiovascular Health Engineering Limited, City University of Hong Kong
InventorsBee Luan Khoo, Haojun Hua
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Abstract
A vascular graft system comprising a vascular graft and a processing unit. The vascular graft comprises at least one pressure sensing device. The processing unit is connected to the at least one pressure sensing device. The processing unit comprises a processor which is configured to (a) receive an arterial pressure pulse trace from the pressure sensor which comprises pressure pulses, (b) classify each pulse as regular or irregular and remove the irregular pulses; and (c) for at least one of the pulses calculate at lease one of PWV, SI, K and AI. There is also disclosed an associated method of processing an arterial pressure pulse trace to obtain at least one of PWV, SI, K and AI.
Claims18
A vascular graft system comprising
- a vascular graft, the vascular graft comprising
- a substrate that is flexible, which can assume an unrolled configuration, in which the substrate extends along a main extension plane, and a rolled-up configuration in which a first surface of the substrate on a first side of the substrate is facing radially inward and a second surface of the substrate on a second side of the substrate is facing radially outward;
- and,
- at least one pressure sensing device, which is arranged on the first side of the substrate and comprises a first electrode, a second electrode, and a piezoelectric element arranged between the first electrode and the second electrode,
- and,
- a processing unit connected to the at least one pressure sensing device, the processing unit comprising a processor configured to perform the steps of
- (a) receive an arterial pressure pulse trace from the pressure sensor, the arterial pressure pulse trace comprising a set of pressure pulses that are consecutive;
- (b) for each pulse in the set of pressure pulses classify the pulse as a regular pulse or an irregular pulse and remove the pulse from the set of pressure pulses if the pulse is an irregular pulse so producing a reduced set of pressure pulses;
- (c) for at least one of the pressure pulses in the reduced set of pressure pulses determine at least one of a pulse wave velocity (PWV), a stiffness index (SI), an arterial blood pressure averaged over one pressure pulse (K), or an augmentation index (AI);
- and,
- (d) compare the determined at least one of PWV, SI, K and AI to at least one known value to assess a pulse condition.
A method of processing an arterial pressure pulse trace comprising the steps of
- (a) receiving an arterial pressure pulse trace from a vascular graft, the vascular graft comprising at least one pressure sensing device, the arterial pressure pulse trace comprising a set of pressure pulses that are consecutive;
- (b) for each pressure pulse in the set of pressure pulses classifying the pulse as a regular pulse or an irregular pulse and removing the pulse from the set of pressure pulses if the pulse is an irregular pulse so producing a reduced set of pressure pulses;
- (c) for at least one of the pressure pulses in the reduced set of pressure pulses, determining at least one of a pulse wave velocity (PWV), a stiffness index (SI), an arterial blood pressure averaged over one pressure pulse (K), or an augmentation index (AI);
- and,
- (d) comparing the determined at least one of PWV, SI, K and AI to at least one known value to assess a pulse condition,
- wherein the vascular graft comprises a substrate that is flexible with an unrolled configuration, in which the substrate extends along a main extension plane, and a rolled-up configuration in which a first surface of the substrate on a first side of the substrate is facing radially inward and a second surface of the substrate on a second side of the substrate is facing radially outward;
- wherein the at least one pressure sensing device is arranged on the first side of the substrate and comprising a first electrode, a second electrode, and a piezoelectric element arranged between the first electrode and the second electrode.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.