Measuring Regional Wave Speed using a Low Cost Portable Device

This paper presents the development of a portable Pulse Wave Velocity (PWV) measurement device using a low cost embedded platform. The device employs the second derivative technique to implement the foot-to-foot method to calculate the time taken for the pressure wave to travel from one sensor to the other. The device allowed to conclude that when an artery exhibits a high level of stiffness the wave speed is also high when compared to an artery with low stiffness.