Deriving central aortic systolic pressure and analyzing arterial waveform data to derive central aortic systolic pressure values

1. A system for deriving central aortic systolic pressure comprising:

an arterial waveform measuring device; and

a processing unit;

wherein the arterial waveform measuring device takes a set of blood pressure measurements at predetermined intervals until at least one arterial waveform is represented by the set of blood pressure measurements taken, the set of blood pressure measurements representative of one arterial waveform then being communicated to the processing unit which:

a) determines an integer interval value;

b) averaging a series of consecutive blood pressure measurement readings in the set equal to the integer interval value commencing from an f th blood pressure measurement in the set;

c) stores the averaged value in a central aortic systolic pressure set; and

d) sets the central aortic systolic pressure as the highest value in the central aortic pressure set;

wherein steps (b) and (c) are repeated with the value of f commencing at 1 and being incremented by 1 each time until the value of f plus the integer interval value equals the number of blood pressure measurements in the set.

2. A computer readable medium that, in use, is non-transitory, the computer readable medium having embodied thereon software comprising computer code, the computer code comprising instructions to derive central aortic systolic pressure, the instructions comprising:

(a) creating a set having a predetermined number of blood pressure measurements, the set representative of an arterial waveform;

(b) determining an integer interval value;

(c) averaging a series of consecutive blood pressure measurement readings in the set equal to the integer interval value commencing from an f th blood pressure measurement in the set;

(d) storing the averaged value in a central aortic systolic pressure set; and

(e) setting the central aortic systolic pressure as the highest value in the central aortic pressure set;

wherein a value of f corresponds with the f uh blood pressure measurement, steps (c) and (d) are repeated with the value of f commencing at 1 and being incremented by 1 each time until the value of f plus the integer interval value equals the predetermined number of blood pressure measurements in the set.

3. A computer readable medium that, in use, is non-transitory, the computer readable medium having embodied thereon software comprising computer code, the computer code comprising instructions to analyze arterial waveform data to derive central aortic systolic pressure values, the instructions comprising:

(a) receiving an arterial waveform dataset;

dividing each arterial waveform in the arterial waveform dataset into a representative set of blood pressure measurements having a predetermined number;

(b) determining an integer interval value for the set being processed;

(c) averaging a series of consecutive blood pressure measurement readings in the set equal to the integer interval value commencing from an f th blood pressure measurement in the set;

(d) storing the averaged value in a central aortic systolic pressure set; and

(e) storing the highest value in the central aortic pressure set in a central aortic systolic pressure value set at a position corresponding to the position the arterial waveform being processed occupies in the arterial waveform dataset;

wherein a value of f corresponds with the f th blood pressure measurement, the steps of (a)-(e) are repeated for each arterial waveform in the arterial waveform dataset and, for each such repetition, steps of (c) and (d) are further repeated with the value of f commencing at 1 and being incremented by 1 each time until the value of f plus the integer interval value equals the predetermined number of blood pressure measurements in the set being processed.

4. A computer readable medium that, in use, is non-transitory, the computer readable medium having embodied thereon software comprising computer code, the computer code comprising instructions to analyze arterial waveform data to derive central aortic systolic pressure values, the instructions comprising:

a) receiving an arterial waveform dataset, where each arterial waveform in the dataset comprises a representative set of blood pressure measurements having a predetermined number;

b) determining an integer interval value for the set being processed;

c) averaging a series of consecutive blood pressure measurement readings in the set equal to the integer interval value commencing from an f th blood pressure measurement in the set;

d) storing the averaged value in a central aortic systolic pressure set; and

e) storing the highest value in the central aortic pressure set in a central aortic systolic pressure value set at a position corresponding to the position the arterial waveform being processed occupies in the arterial waveform dataset;

wherein a value of f corresponds with the f th blood pressure measurement, the functions of the interval means, averaging means, first storing means and second storing means steps (a)-(e) are repeated for each arterial waveform in the arterial waveform dataset and, for each such repetition, steps (c) and (d) are further repeated with the value of f commencing at 1 and being incremented by 1 each time until the value of f plus the integer interval value equals the predetermined number of blood pressure measurements in the set being processed.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined number of blood pressure measurements for at least one arterial waveform in the dataset differs from the predetermined number of blood pressure measurements for the other arterial waveforms in the dataset.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the set of blood pressure measurements substantially equates to a uniform distribution of values from the arterial waveform.

7. The system of claim 6 , further comprising a means to determine the duration of the arterial waveform and where the predetermined number of blood pressure measurement is determined according to the following formula:

Predetermined number= sr×t

where:

sr=the sample rate, in Hz, f a measuring device used to record the blood pressure measurements in the set; and

t=the duration of the arterial waveform.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the integer interval value is a division of the sample rate.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the integer interval value is the sample rate divided by 4.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the integer interval value is a division of the predetermined number.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the integer interval value is within a range the boundaries of which are determined as follows:

i range =n /( t×v )±( n /( t× 30))

where:

n is the predetermined number of blood pressure measurements in the set;

t is the duration of the waveform (in seconds); and

v is a predetermined division value.

12. The system of claim 11 , where v=4.

13. The system of claim 1 , where the integer interval value is equal to 60 divided by a predetermined division value.

14. The system of claim 13 , where the integer interval value is 15.

15. The system of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined number of blood pressure measurements in the set is equal to or greater than 15.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the predetermined number of blood pressure measurements in the set is at least 30.