Correlation between the pulse wave and the blood echogenicity in the radial artery.

Pulsatile flow generated by the cardiac motion results in the complicated hemorheological phenomena in the artery. The pulse wave in the radial artery is utilized for the measurement of tonometry and the diagnosis of various diseases by the oriental medical doctors. In this paper, the pulse wave obtained from the three‐dimensional (3‐D) pulse wave analyzer was compared with the blood echogenicity and vessel diameter in the radial artery using an ultrasound biomicroscopy system. The ultrasonic data were acquired for five subjects and the left wrist of each subject was put on the wrist‐rest of the 3‐D pulse wave analyzer measuring the pulse waves for 25 s. The repetitive measurement was performed eight times for one of the subjects. The blood vessel motion and the blood echogenicity were calculated from the cross sectional B‐mode images of the radial artery. The cyclic variation of the vessel diameter and the blood echogenicity was measured during cardiac cycles. The phases between both of them were opposite each other, and the cyclic variation of the vessel diameter showed the similar pattern with that of the pulse wave. These correlations can be helpful for the diagnosis of the cardiovascular diseases. [Work was supported by Grant no. NRF‐2010‐0017078.]