Stiffness Index; Normal Ranges - CareFusion PulseTrace PCA2 Manual Operativo

Stiffness index

The timing of the reflected
wave (diastolic component)
relative to the direct wave
(systolic component)
depends on large artery
1
stiffness . Arterial stiffness
determines the speed of
propagation of the pulse.
With stiff arteries, the
reflected wave will arrive earlier during the cardiac cycle than with
more elastic/compliant arteries.
PulseTrace PCA2 provides the Peak-to-Peak Time (PPT) as an
estimation of the propagation time of the reflected wave. If the
arterial tree length is proportional to the subject height, PulseTrace
PCA2 defines the stiffness index (SI) as the subject height divided by
the peak to peak time.
There is increasing evidence that large artery stiffness may be the
single most important predictor of cardiovascular events. The
PulseTrace PCA2 provides a simple measure of large artery stiffness
and is ideal for large-scale epidemiological, genetic and
interventional studies.

Normal ranges

There is no normal range for RI as it depends on vascular tone which
is influenced by many factors such as cardiac output, exercise, food
intake, etc. Please refer to page 31 for some examples of the effect
of exercise on the DVP.
SI depends on large artery stiffness, which is mainly determined by
age and blood pressure (see Figure 1). PulseTrace PCA2 provides
the normal range of SI for the subject age. CareFusion does not
26