村田 亮治¹, 金井 浩¹, 中鉢 憲賢¹, 小岩 喜郎², 竹内 康人³

Ryoji MURATA¹, Hiroshi KANAI¹, Noriyosi CHUBACHI¹, Yoshiro KOIWA², Yasuhito TAKEUCHI³

¹東北大学工学部電気工学科, ²東北大学第1内科, ³GE横河メディカルシステム(秩)

¹Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Tohoku University, ²Tohoku University School of Medicine, ³GE Yokogawa Medical Systems, Ltd.

キーワード : Aorta, Arteriosclerosis, Pulse-wave velocity, Ultrasonic Doppler method

Small vibrations were measured simultaneously at two adjacent points on the aortic wall near the aortic valve by electronically alternating the direction of an ultrasonic beam. Transit delay time of the pulse wave between these two points was determined from the two vibration signals obtained by this alternating-beam method. Local pulse-wave velocity at a point several millimeters along the aorta was precisely obtained by dividing distance between these points by resultant transit delay time. Such local acoustic properties of blood vessels will prove useful, especially for noninvasive diagnosis of early stage arteriosclerosis.