Evaluation of heart mechanical performance

Apparatus for evaluating the mechanical condition of a heart of a patient having skin, comprising,

• pressure sensitive transducing means responsive to arterial pulsation for providing a pulse signal representative of arterial pulsation,
• pressure applying means for applying controlled pressure through means including said pressure sensitive transducing means to the patient skin and maintaining said controlled pressure within the range of significantly above the diastolic pressure of said patient and a pressure substantially half said diastolic pressure,
• and means for detecting the change in said pulse signal during and after a heart straining maneuver reactive to said pulse signal just before said heart straining maneuver.

A method of evaluating the mechanical condition of a heart in a patient which method includes the steps of,

• noninvasively providing a pulse signal representative of arterial pulsation by placing transducing means for providing an electrical signal representative of said arterial pulsation closely adjacent to the skin of said patient,
• subjecting said patient to a heart-straining manoeuver to provide an arterial pulse contour square wave signal during said heart-straining manoeuver having an early strain phase amplitude at the beginning of said heart-straining manoeuver and a late strain phase amplitude at the end of said heart-straining manoeuver,
• and providing an indication of the ratio of said late strain phase amplitude to said early strain phase amplitude which ratio is representative of the mechanical condition of the heart of said patient.

A method of evaluating the mechanical condition of a heart in a patient which method includes the steps of,

• noninvasively providing a pulse signal representative of arterial pulsation by placing transducing means sufficiently close to the skin of said patient to provide an electrical signal representative of said arterial pulsation,
• subjecting said patient to a heart-straining maneuver to provide an arterial pulse contour square wave signal during said heart-straining manoeuver having an early strain phase amplitude at the beginning of said heart-straining maneuver and a late strain phase amplitude at the end of said heart-straining maneuver,
• and providing an indication of the ratio of said late strain phase amplitude to said early strain amplitude which ratio is representative of the mechanical condition of the heart of said patient.