Blood flow measurement from plethysmographic pulse waves without venous occlusion.

An air plethysmograph with a sensitive phototransducer was constructed so that plethysmographic volume-change pulsations could be displayed in detail without using venous occlusion. Software was developed to allow analysis of the pulses using a modification of the backward extrapolation technique. This allowed calculation of the forward arterial blood flow and noninvasive derivation of the resting arterial flow waveform. There is good reproducibility of the technique, with 8% variability between pairs of measurements at rest and 4% variability after hand exercise. Direct comparison made with blood flows measured by venous occlusion plethysmography showed good average agreement. The mean blood flow for venous occlusion (rest and exercise) was 0.76 +/- 0.07 mL/beat (mean +/- SEM), and the mean blood flow for backward extrapolation (rest and exercise) was 0.74 +/- 0.09 mL/beat (mean +/- SEM). This corresponds to 3.86 +/- 0.36 mL/min/100 mL and 3.76 +/- 0.46 mL/min/100 mL, respectively. Important assumptions when using this method are that venous return is constant and that forward arterial flow is over before the end of the cardiac cycle.