Abstract
Pulse transit time (PTT) is a potential parameter for cuffless blood pressure (BP) estimation. Since exercise induces changes in arterial properties that can influence the relationship between BP and PTT, we investigate whether PTT can be used to estimate BP after successive bouts of exercise. PTT-foot, PTT-peak (time intervals from the peak of electrocardiogram R-wave to the foot and peak of photoplethysmogram, respectively) and BP of 41 normotensive subjects (aged 25 ± 4 years) were measured in the first test. A repeatability test was then conducted on 14 subjects after 6 months. Each test included two periods of running on the treadmill at 10 and 8 km/h (with a rest in between). In both tests, systolic BP (SBP) was closely correlated with PTT-foot and PTT-peak. For each subject, the best fit linear relationships between SBP and PTTs were determined over all phases of each test. The differences between the linear fits and measured data were greater after the second period of running for all subjects in both tests. This implied that the relationships started to change after the second period of running. When SBP in the repeatability test was predicted using the linear regression coefficients from the first test, the linear fit after the first period of exercise was still better than after the second. The repeated observations in both tests suggest that PTT is a potential parameter for cuffless BP estimation after one period of exercise, but would need re-calibration (relationship between BP and PTTs) for measurements after successive phases of exercise.
Similar content being viewed by others
Abbreviations
- BP:
-
Blood pressure
- DBP:
-
Diastolic blood pressure
- ECG:
-
Electrocardiogram
- HR:
-
Heart rate
- PPG:
-
Photoplethysmogram
- PTT:
-
Pulse transit time
- PWV:
-
Pulse wave velocity
- SBP:
-
Systolic blood pressure
References
Allen RA, Schneider JA, Davidson DM, Winchester MA, Taylor CB (1981) The covariation of blood pressure and pulse transit time in hypertensive patients. Psychophysiology 18:301–306
Assaad MA, Topouchian JA, Darne BM, Asmar RG (2002) Validation of the Omron HEM-907 device for blood pressure measurement. Blood Press Monit 7:237–241
Foo JY, Wilson SJ (2006) A computational system to optimise noise rejection in photoplethysmography signals during motion or poor perfusion states. Med Biol Eng Comput 44:140–145
Heffernan KS, Jae SY, Echols GH, Lepine NR, Fernhall B (2007) Arterial stiffness and wave reflection following exercise in resistance-trained men. Med Sci Sports Exerc 39:842–848
Kingwell BA, Berry KL, Cameron JD, Jennings GL, Dart AM (1997) Arterial compliance increases after moderate-intensity cycling. Am J Physiol 273:H2186–H2191
Lass J, Meigas K, Karai D, Kattai R, Kaik J, Rossmann M (2004) Continuous blood pressure monitoring during exercise using pulse wave transit time measurement. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc 3:2239–2242
Liang YL, Teede H, Shiel LM, Thomas A, Sachithanandan N, McNeil JJ, Cameron JD, Dart A, McGrath BP (1997) Effects of oestrogen and progesterone on age-related changes in arteries of postmenopausal women. Clin Exp Pharmacol Physiol 24:457–459
Lydakis C, Momen A, Blaha C, Gugoff S, Gray K, Herr M, Leuenberger UA, Sinoway LI (2008) Changes of central haemodynamic parameters during mental stress and acute bouts of static and dynamic exercise. J Hum Hypertens 22:320–328
Marie GV, Lo CR, Van Jones J, Johnston DW (1984) The relationship between arterial blood pressure and pulse transit time during dynamic and static exercise. Psychophysiology 21:521–527
McDonald DA (1974) Blood flow in arteries. Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore
Naka KK, Tweddel AC, Parthimos D, Henderson A, Goodfellow J, Frenneaus MP (2003) Arterial distensibility: acute changes following dynamic exercise in normal subjects. Am J Physiol 284:H970–H978
Park J, Lim Y, Chee Y, Kim J, Kim K, Park KS (2005) Unconstrained pulse transit time measurement system for computer users. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc 4:3580–3582
Pollak MH, Obrist PA (1983) Aortic-radial pulse transit time and ECG Q-wave to radial pulse wave interval as indices of beat-by-beat blood pressure change. Psychophysiology 20:21–28
Rakobowchuk M, Stuckey MI, Millar PJ, Gurr L, MacDonald MJ (2009) Effect of acute sprint interval exercise on central and peripheral artery distensibility in young healthy males. Eur J Appl Physiol 105:787–795
Salkind NJ (2005) Tests and measurement for people who (think they) hate tests and measurement. Sage Publications, CA
Steptoe A, Smulyan H, Gribbin B (1976) Pulse wave velocity and blood pressure change: calibration and applications. Psychophysiology 13:488–493
Studinger P, Lénárd Z, Kováts Z, Kocsis L, Kollai M (2003) Static and dynamic changes in carotid artery diameter in humans during and after strenuous exercise. J Physiol 50:575–583
Sugawara J, Otsuki T, Tanabe T, Maeda S, Kuno S, Ajisaka R, Matsuda M (2003) The effects of low-intensity single-leg exercise on regional arterial stiffness. Jpn J Physiol 53:239–241
Sugawara J, Maeda S, Otsuki T, Tanabe T, Ajisaka R, Matsuda M (2004) Effects of nitric oxide synthase inhibitor on decrease in peripheral arterial stiffness with acute low-intensity aerobic exercise. Am J Physiol 287:H2666–H2669
Teng XF, Zhang YT (2006) The effect of applied sensor contact force on pulse transit time. Physiol Meas 27:675–684
Teng XF, Poon CCY, Zhang YT (2005) Recoverability trend of blood pressure and pulse transit time after treadmill exercise. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc 4:3510–3513
White WB, Anwar YA (2001) Evaluation of the overall efficacy of the Omron office digital blood pressure HEM-907 monitor in adults. Blood Press Monit 6:107–110
Wong YM, Zhang YT (2004) Effects of exercise on the pulse transit time. In: Proceedings of 2nd IEEE-EMBS International Summer School and Symposium on MDBS, pp 101–102
Wong YM, Zhang YT (2005) The effects of exercises on the relationship between pulse transit time and arterial blood pressure. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc 5:5576–5578
Wong YM, Zhang YT (2006) The relationship between pulse transit time and systolic blood pressure on individual subjects after exercises. In: Proceedings of first transdisciplinary conference on distributed diagnosis and home healthcare, pp 37–38
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Fund. The authors would like to acknowledge Golden Meditech Company Ltd. and Bright Steps Corporation for their support to the study. We are also thankful to the students and staff of our department for their participation in this study.
Conflict of interest statement
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest and the experiments conducted in the study comply with the laws of HKSAR.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wong, M.YM., Pickwell-MacPherson, E. & Zhang, YT. The acute effects of running on blood pressure estimation using pulse transit time in normotensive subjects. Eur J Appl Physiol 107, 169–175 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-009-1112-8
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-009-1112-8