Ear arterial pulse computation reliability of diastolic perfusion time during stress test

Diastolic perfusion time is a critical determinant of myocardial oxygen supply when coronary artery flow is limited by a significant stenosis of the coronary vessel. Diastolic time adjustment of the ST segment depression occurring during effort enhances stress test prediction of the coronary impairment severity. Effective diastolic adjustment of ST segment requires a stable and simple to perform measurement of the diastolic perfusion time during stress test execution. The authors investigated the reproducibility of the diastolic measurements obtained using the arterial pulse of the lobulus auriculae compared to the classical phonocardiographic data. The results obtained indicate that ear arterial pulse measurement of the diastolic time is reliable avoiding the difficulties rising from using the phonocardiographic method.