P6.22 A NOVEL DEVICE FOR MEASURING ARTERIAL STIFFNESS USING THE FINGER-TOE PULSE WAVE VELOCITY: VALIDATION STUDY OF THE POPMÈTRE®

Abstract

Background: Finger-toe pathway could represent a good alternative to assess the arterial stiffness conveniently. The aim of this study is to evaluate the accuracy of the pOpmètre which measures finger-toe pulse wave velocity (ft-PWV). Methods: The pOpmètre® has 2 photodiodes sensors, positioned on the finger and on the toe, next to the pulp artery, and a cardiac activity electrode. Pulse waves were recorded continuously for 20 sec, and the difference (Dtf) between the toe pulse wave transit times (PWtt) and the finger PWtt was calculated relative to R-ECG. The travel distance was based on subject’s height. Study 1 compared the ft-PWV to the carotid-femoral PWV (cf-PWV) obtained by the reference method SphygmoCor in 86 subjects (53±20 yrs) including 69 patients with various pathologies and 9 healthy normotensives. Study 2 compared the changes of ft-PWV and cf-PWV during a dynamic test in 10 healthy subjects. Results: ft-PWV correlated significantly with cf-PWV (r2 = 0.43, p<0.0001). The better correlation was found in terms of transit time (r2 = 0.6, p<0.0001). The discrepancy between the transit times was related swith age. The Dtf also correlated with the transit time at lower limbs. During dynamic changes induced by cold pressor test, both cf-PWV and ft-PWV gave similar patterns, with increase following by a decrease PWV during recovery. Conclusion: pOpmètre® may be a promising device to assess arterial stiffness in routine clinical practice. Further studies are needed to adjust the bias and to validate the pOpmètre in larger populations.