Continuous monitoring of the perfusion of an organ or extremity

1. A method for assessing obstruction in a blood vessel comprising:

measuring a delay in wave propagation of a blood perfusion wave, which is associated with flow of blood through a blood vessel, and correlating said delay to an amount of occlusion in the blood vessel, wherein an increase in said delay is correlated as an increase in the amount of occlusion;

wherein said delay is a peak perfusion delay that includes: (a) an interval from an R wave to a perfusion onset, also referred to as pulse-transit time; (b) a first phase of the perfusion wave and (c) a second phase of the perfusion wave, said second phase being faster than said first phase, up to a peak of the perfusion wave;

identifying respiratory and cardiac components and modulations of said perfusion wave; and

non-invasively detecting a presence of partial arterial occlusion in the blood vessel by correlating said partial arterial occlusion to an attenuation of the cardiac component of the perfusion wave, and graphically or numerically displaying a prolongation of said first phase of the perfusion wave, which is slower than said second phase, to graphically or numerically display existence of peripheral artery disease or arterial lesion.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said delay in wave propagation is associated with a change in a shape of said perfusion wave.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said delay in wave propagation is associated with a change in a power spectrum of said perfusion wave.

4. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising measuring said delay in wave propagation in left and right limbs and comparing the delay in each of the limbs.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein measuring said delay is done by measuring coherence between different limbs or sites, or between different acquisitions in time.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the correlating is done by wavelet coherence analysis, by continuous wavelet transform, or by analysis of a time-frequency domain associated with said delay.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein differentiating between said respiratory and said cardiac components is done by quantifying changes in a spectrum between different limbs or sites or between different acquisitions in time.

8. A method for assessing obstruction in a blood vessel comprising:

measuring a wave propagation of a blood perfusion wave, which is associated with flow of blood through a blood vessel;

wherein said delay is a peak perfusion delay that includes: (a) an interval from an R wave to a perfusion onset, also referred to as pulse-transit time; (b) a first phase of the perfusion wave and (c) a second phase of the perfusion wave, said second phase being faster than said first phase, up to a peak of the perfusion wave;

identifying respiratory and cardiac components and modulations of said perfusion wave; and

non-invasively detecting a presence of partial arterial occlusion in the blood vessel by correlating said partial arterial occlusion to an attenuation of the cardiac component of the perfusion wave, and graphically or numerically displaying a prolongation of said first phase of the perfusion wave, which is slower than said second phase, to graphically or numerically display existence of peripheral artery disease or arterial lesion.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein differentiating between said respiratory and said cardiac components is done by quantifying changes in a spectrum between different limbs or sites or between different acquisitions in time.

10. A system for assessing obstruction in a blood vessel comprising:

a sensor configured to measure a delay in wave propagation of a blood perfusion wave, which is associated with flow of blood through a blood vessel, wherein said delay is a peak perfusion delay that includes: (a) an interval from an R wave to a perfusion onset, also referred to as pulse-transit time; (b) a first phase of the perfusion wave and (c) a second phase of the perfusion wave, said second phase being faster than said first phase, up to a peak of the perfusion wave; and

a processor configured to correlate said delay to an amount of occlusion in the blood vessel, wherein an increase in said delay is correlated as an increase in the amount of occlusion;

wherein said processor is configured to identify respiratory and cardiac components and modulations of said perfusion wave; and

wherein said processor is configured to non-invasively detect a presence of partial arterial occlusion in the blood vessel by correlating said partial arterial occlusion to an attenuation of the cardiac component of the perfusion wave, and graphically or numerically displaying a prolongation of said first phase of the perfusion wave, which is slower than said second phase, on a graphic or numeric display to graphically or numerically display existence of peripheral artery disease or arterial lesion.

11. The system according to claim 10 , wherein said sensor comprises an electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor.

12. The system according to claim 10 , wherein said sensor comprises a photo-plethysmography (PPG) sensor.

13. The system according to claim 10 , wherein said sensor comprises an impedance plethysmography (IPG) sensor.

14. The system according to claim 10 , wherein said sensor comprises a tonometry sensor.

15. The system according to claim 10 , wherein said sensor comprises an accelerometer.