Harmonic components of photoplethysmography and pathological patterns: A cross-sectional study

This study aimed to examine whether the 3 harmonic components (HCs) of photoplethysmography (PTG) – total harmonic distortion (THD), harmonic power (HP), and normalized harmonic amplitude (HA) – have aging effects and may serve as an arterial stiffness marker and examine the relationship between HCs and clinical severity of pathological patterns. This study had a retrospective chart review design, and electronic medical records of 173 female patients (age: 38.57 ± 11.64 years) were reviewed. Patients were asked to complete the phlegm, blood stasis (BS), and food retention (FR) pattern questionnaires and underwent PTG and the second derivative of PTG measurements. THD, HP, and HA data were extracted till the 12th HCs from the raw PTG data. THD and HA had an aging effect (β: −0.179 to −0.278) and were related to b/a (r: −02.76 to −0.455) and d/a (r: 0.265–0.360) of the second derivative of PTG. In the younger group (≤33 years), HP and HA were positively correlated with phlegm, BS, and FR patterns (r: 0.257–0.370), while HP was positively correlated with the FR pattern (r: 0.278–0.315) in the middle age group (34–45 years). In the older group (≥46 years), HP and HA were positively or negatively correlated with the phlegm pattern (r: ±0.263 to ±0.440). HCs may serve as an arterial stiffness marker, and may be partially related to phlegm, BS, and FR patterns. Aging effect needs to be considered when utilizing HCs as an indicator of phlegm, BS, and FR patterns.