Joseph Jayaraj, T Arya Sree, Boobalan C, Sivaprakasam Mohanasankar, Shah Malay
Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2014;2014:4799-802. doi: 10.1109/EMBC.2014.6944697.
Evaluation of arterial stiffness is significant in early detection and vascular diagnosis. We have developed and validated an image free system called ARTSENS for evaluation of carotid artery stiffness. In this paper, we present a detailed study on the repeatability of arterial stiffness measurements performed using ARTSENS. The study protocol was designed to emulate typical constraints encountered in field usage of ARTSENS as a screening tool. The intra operator variability (repeatability) of ARTSENS was verified by in-vivo measurements on 18 subjects. Inter operator variability (reproducibility) was also studied. The ability of the instrument to give reliable measurements in both sitting and supine posture of the subject was verified. Further, the variation of arterial stiffness measurements over different times of the day was investigated to verify the ability of the instrument to give a practically usable stable measure of stiffness. The repeatability and reproducibility of ARTSENS measurements was found to be comparable to those provided by state of art image-based systems. Stiffness measurements provided by ARTSENS were found to be stable over a day indicating utility of the instrument in providing a quick and reliable measure of carotid artery stiffness.
评估动脉僵硬度在早期检测和血管诊断中具有重要意义。我们已经开发并验证了一种名为ARTSENS的无图像系统，用于评估颈动脉僵硬度。在本文中，我们对使用ARTSENS进行的动脉僵硬度测量的可重复性进行了详细研究。该研究方案旨在模拟ARTSENS作为筛查工具在现场使用时遇到的典型限制。通过对18名受试者的体内测量验证了ARTSENS的操作者内变异性（可重复性）。还研究了操作者间变异性（再现性）。验证了该仪器在受试者坐姿和仰卧姿势下进行可靠测量的能力。此外，还研究了一天中不同时间动脉僵硬度测量值的变化，以验证该仪器提供实际可用的稳定僵硬度测量值的能力。发现ARTSENS测量的可重复性和再现性与基于图像的先进系统相当。发现ARTSENS提供的僵硬度测量值在一天内是稳定的，这表明该仪器在提供快速可靠的颈动脉僵硬度测量方面具有实用性。
