High Fidelity Pressure Wires Provide Accurate Validation of Non-Invasive Central Blood Pressure and Pulse Wave Velocity Measurements

Central blood pressure (cBP) is known to be a better predictor of the damage caused by hypertension in comparison with peripheral blood pressure. During cardiac catheterization, we measured cBP in the ascending aorta with a fluid-filled guiding catheter (FF) in 75 patients and with a high-fidelity micromanometer tipped wire (FFR) in 20 patients. The wire was withdrawn into the brachial artery and aorto-brachial pulse wave velocity (abPWV) was calculated from the length of the pullback and the time delay between the ascending aorta and the brachial artery pulse waves by gating to the R-wave of the ECG for both measurements. In 23 patients, a cuff was inflated around the calf and an aorta-tibial pulse wave velocity (atPWV) was calculated from the distance between the cuff around the leg and the axillary notch and the time delay between the ascending aorta and the tibial pulse waves. Brachial BP was measured non-invasively and cBP was estimated using a new suprasystolic oscillometric technology. The mean differences between invasively measured cBP by FFR and non-invasive estimation were −0.4 ± 5.7 mmHg and by FF 5.4 ± 9.4 mmHg in 52 patients. Diastolic and mean cBP were both overestimated by oscillometry, with mean differences of −8.9 ± 5.5 mmHg and −6.4 ± 5.1 mmHg compared with the FFR and −10.6 ± 6.3 mmHg and −5.9 ± 6.2 mmHg with the FF. Non-invasive systolic cBP compared accurately with the high-fidelity FFR measurements, demonstrating a low bias (≤5 mmHg) and high precision (SD ≤ 8 mmHg). These criteria were not met when using the FF measurements. Invasively derived average Ao-brachial abPWV was 7.0 ± 1.4 m/s and that of Ao-tibial atPWV was 9.1 ± 1.8 m/s. Non-invasively estimated PWV based on the reflected wave transit time did not correlate with abPWV or with atPWV. In conclusion, we demonstrate the advantages of a novel method of validation for non-invasive cBP monitoring devices using acknowledged gold standard FFR wire transducers and the possibility to easily measure PWV during coronary angiography with the impact of cardiovascular risk factors.