Modeling Peripheral Artery Behavior Beneath a Non-Invasive Wearable Sensor Subject to Varying Outside Pressure

The state of the peripheral arteries is known to be a key physiological indicator of the body’s response to both acute and chronic medical conditions. In this paper, changes in peripheral artery behavior are tracked by combining a photo plethysmograph (PPG) sensor and a piezoelectric (PVDF) sensor with an outside pressure-varying cuff. In a swine subject, a simple mechanical model for the local artery and tissue captures broad features present in the PPG and PVDF signals, with respect to varying cuff pressure. These behaviors may provide insight into robustness of cardiovascular property identification by non-invasive wearable sensing.