Patent ID: 7672706

Claim:
A method of measuring the velocity of anatomical pulse waves propagating within a body lumen, comprising: collecting data from a first anatomical pulse wave with an intravascular device at a first location within a body lumen, wherein the intravascular device is located within the body lumen, and wherein the anatomical pulse wave data collected at the first location comprises image data of an inner wall of the body lumen at the first location; collecting data from a second anatomical pulse wave with the intravascular device at a second location within the body lumen, wherein the intravascular device is located within the body lumen, and wherein the anatomical pulse wave data collected at the second location comprises image data of the inner wall of the body lumen at the second location; wherein the anatomical pulse wave data collected at the first and second locations are collected upon the occurrence of trigger points; and calculating the velocity of anatomical pulse waves in the region between the first and second locations with the anatomical pulse wave data collected at the first and second locations, wherein the velocity of the anatomical pulse waves are calculated based, at least in part, on the difference in time durations between the occurrence of the first trigger point and the collection of anatomical pulse wave data at the first location and the occurrence of the second trigger point and the collection of anatomical pulse wave data at the second location; wherein the anatomical pulse wave data collected at the first location and the anatomical pulse wave data collected at the second location are collected from different anatomical pulse waves.