Vascular parameters for ambulatory monitoring of congestive heart failure patients: proof of concept

Abstract

Purpose: Prompt detection of congestion is an essential target in order to prevent heart failure (HF) related hospitalization, being ambulatory monitoring a promising strategy to do so. A successful non-invasive ambulatory monitoring system requires automatic devices for physiological data recording; these data must give information about HF deterioration early enough to predict HF-related adverse events. This work aims to evaluate seven vascular parameters for the ambulatory monitoring of congestive heart failure patients. Methods: Seven vascular parameters are proposed as indicators of HF deterioration. These parameters are obtained using venous occlusion plethysmography; a technique that uses hardware able of being miniaturized and easily integrated into wearables for ambulatory monitoring. The ability of the proposed vascular parameters to detect congestion is evaluated in eight healthy volunteers and ten congestive heart failure patients with different congestion levels—mild, moderate and severe. Results: Most parameters distinguish between healthy volunteers and heart failure patients, and some of them present significant differences between volunteers and low levels of congestion—mild or moderate. Conclusion: Home monitoring of some of the proposed parameters could detect HF deterioration on its onset and alert to health personnel.