[Diagnostic value of the systolic part of the arterial pulse curve, registered using a bloodless technic].

Left ventricular contractility of 20 patients, measured by heart catheterization was compared with simultaneously but unbloody registrated pulse wave of A. carotis. Furthermore the crest time of femoralis and dorsalis pedis pulse wave was correlated to ejection time, pulse wave velocity, blood pressure and the length of the arteries between heart and foot of 1112 patients suffering from hypertension, arteriosclerosis, circulatory dysregulation and of 182 healthy sportsmen. The indices of left ventricular contractility: dp/dtmax, dp/dtmax/IP and t-dp/dt correlated highly significant with the time between the onset of the systolic upstroke and the first peak in the carotis pulse wave. No correlation was found with ejection time and the last systolic peak of the carotis pulse. Crest time is always shorter in the pulse wave of the foot arteries than in the femoral artery. The crest time in the femoral- and foot pulse correlates in all groups significantly with ejection time, patients with hypertension have the shortest, patients with arteriosclerosis the longest crest times, the last independent from the ejection time. The time between the start of the systolic upstroke and the first systolic peak in the unbloody registrated carotis pulse wave gives indication to the pressure development in the left ventricle. A long crest time in the peripheral pulse (pulsus tardus) is a typical symptom of generalized arteriosclerosis. The combination of slow pulse wave velocity in the leg and long crest time in the foot arteries (quotient greater than 20.5) indicates a stenosis in the arteries of the leg.