Patent ID: 8273030

Claim:
A method of estimating blood pressure Pulse Wave Velocity (PWV) in the aorta from a recording of a pressure waveform at a single site, the method comprising the following steps: (a) measuring a patient's arterial pressure relative to time in order to estimate a central pressure waveform (CPW) at a single site; (b) estimating the patient's aortic pressure pulse transit time (PPTT) from the CPW at least by estimating an incident pressure waveform (IPW) and reflected pressure waveform (RPW) components of the patient's CPW, whereby the PPTT has a linear relationship with a time difference between the foot of the IPW and the foot of the RPW; (c) estimating the patient's carotid to femoral arterial distance from the patient's physical characteristics; and (d) dividing the patient's estimated carotid to femoral arterial distance by the patient's estimated PPTT to estimate the patient's PWV.