Arterial Aging Best Reflected in Pulse Wave Velocity Measured from Neck to Lower Limbs: A Whole-Body Multichannel Bioimpedance Study

Pulse wave velocity is a commonly used parameter for evaluating arterial stiffness and the overall condition of the cardiovascular system. The main goal of this study was to establish a methodology to test and validate multichannel bioimpedance as a suitable method for whole-body evaluations of pulse waves. We set the proximal location over the left carotid artery and eight distal locations on both the upper and lower limbs. In this way, it was possible to simultaneously evaluate pulse wave velocity (PWV) in the upper and lower limbs and in the limbs via four extra PWV measurements. Data were acquired from a statistical group of 220 healthy subjects who were divided into three age groups. The data were then analysed. We found a significant dependency of aortic PWV on age in those values measured using the left carotid as the proximal. PWV values in the upper and lower limbs were found to have no significant dependency on age. In addition, the PWV in the left femoral artery shows comparable values to published already carotid-femoral values. Those findings prove the reliability of whole-body multichannel bioimpedance for pulse wave velocity evaluation and provide reference values for whole-body PWV measurement.