Development and Testing of a Prototype for 3D Radial Pulse Image Measurement and Compatible With 1D Pulse Wave Analysis

Abstract

This study proposes the prototype of a wrist pulse acquisition device with three-dimensional pulse image (3DPI) obtained at the radial artery. The proposed prototype is designed with mechanical and electronic circuit hardware as well as the control and data acquisition software to have fourteen degrees of movement freedom against the sophisticated geometry of the wrist radial artery for accurate pulse-taking. Three robot fingers with nine degrees of movement freedom and a wrist fixer with two degrees of rotation freedom and one degree of manual movement freedom are designed to mimic the fine pulse-taking skill of a Chinese medicine physician. The customer-designed array sensors with 5 × 5-1 sensing elements in an array are attached on the robot fingertips to get 3DPI with spatial information for direct translation of pulse feeling patterns in Chinese medicine texts, in addition to being compatible with 1D pulse wave analysis. To check reliability of the prototype, adopted is SphygmoCor with pulse data correlation. Consequently, the prototype passes safety tests and has high correlation of pulse data (waveform and peripheral augmented index) with those obtained by SphygmoCor. The automatic multi-depth pulse-taking with robot fingers attached array sensors on their tips can get acceptably repeatable pulse data with coefficient of variation less than 10%. By simultaneous pulse-taking at Cun-Guan-Chi positions, 3DPIs demonstrate great different stereoscopic waveshapes against almost unchanged single temporal pulse waveshape. Hence, the proposed prototype may be a useful tool to perform array pulse-taking for Chinese medicine pulse diagnosis and pulse wave analysis for cardiovascular examination.INDEX TERMS Radial pulse measurements, three-dimensional pulse image (3DPI), pulse wave analysis (PWA), Chinese medicine (CM), medical instrumentation, biomedical engineering.

A reliable evaluation approach for multichannel signal denoising algorithms based on a novel arterial pulse acquisition system

“…These three types of tactile sensors cover the most typical categories of available commercial PPS tactile sensors. To demonstrate the broad applicability of our approach, the tactile sensors in this study differ in terms of model, parameters, production years [ [8] , [9] , [10] ] and used times. Each experiment utilizes a specific PPS tactile sensor mounted on the robot finger and maintains a specific depth of the robot finger for a measurement pressure consistent with that of SphygmoCor close by the robot finger.…”

“…3 Illustration of 3DPIs employed in this study. (a) the superimposed stereoscopic 3DPIs of 24 subjects (12- channel [ 8 ]); (b) the stereoscopic display of a simulated 3DPI (60 × 60 matrix). The x-axis and the y-axis of a 3D coordinate system define the pulse length along the direction of arterial blood flow while the pulse width corresponds to the pulse width perpendicular to that direction.…”

“…Some early pathological modifications like arterial stiffness and endothelial dysfunction can be estimated and diagnosed by cardiovascular parameters conducted from pulse wave analysis, such as heart rate, blood pressure, and pulse wave velocity [ 2 , [5] , [6] , [7] ]. In recent years, multichannel pulse signals have been measured widely with tactile sensors performed for physiological signals applications studies [ [8] , [9] , [10] , [11] ]. Multichannel arterial pulse signals are also called three-dimensional pulse images (3DPIs), providing three-dimensional spatial and temporal characteristics of pulse waves [ 8 ].…”

“…In recent years, multichannel pulse signals have been measured widely with tactile sensors performed for physiological signals applications studies [ [8] , [9] , [10] , [11] ]. Multichannel arterial pulse signals are also called three-dimensional pulse images (3DPIs), providing three-dimensional spatial and temporal characteristics of pulse waves [ 8 ].…”

“…In this paper, a PPS sensor with 3 rows and 4 columns is marked as 3 × 4. The 5 × 5-1 PPS sensor can provide a tactile centre point by placing the blank place in the corner [ 8 ]. These three generations of PPS tactile sensors are all used in the experiment to demonstrate the validity of our approach in sensors with different matrix forms.…”