A new and original indirect method of determining arterial wall elasticity
is described. The speed of the transmission of the pulse wave between two
points in the arterial system, i.e., the left external carotid and left
dorsalis pedis arteries, is measured. The faster the transmission of the
pulse wave, the less elastic is the arterial wall. The time of the
transmission of the pulse wave is measured by recording the arterial
pulses in the left external carotid and left dorsalis pedis arteries with
a device, which I originally designed and described in detail above,
attached to the center of the pick up microphone of a high frequency
oscillograph, simultaneously with the Std. Lead II of the ECG. The device
produces pulses which very closely resemble the intra arterial pulses and
this is essential as said pulses have foot points which are easily
distinguishable and marked as reference points for accurate time interval
measurements. In this method a longer segment of the arterial system is
measured so that the margin of error for statistical analysis is loss.
This method is original as the "peripheral artery" used is the left
dorsalis pedis artery and this has never been mentioned in the medical
literature up to the present. Also, the segment from the left external
carotid artery to the left dorsalis pedis artery is an original idea, as
the medical literature up to present describes segments from the left
external carotid artery to the left femoral artery or from the external
carotid artery to the brachial or radial arteries which are shorter
segments compared to that of my method.