Spectral analysis of the microcirculatory laser Doppler signal at the Hoku acupuncture point.

We aimed to characterize the frequency spectra of skin blood flow signals recorded at Hoku, an important acupuncture point (acupoint) in oriental medicine. Electrocardiogram (ECG) and laser Doppler flowmetry signals were measured simultaneously in 31 trials on seven volunteers aged 21-27 years. A four-level Haar wavelet transform was applied to the measured 20 min laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF) signals, and periodic oscillations with five characteristic frequency peaks were obtained within the following frequency bands: 0.0095-0.021 Hz, 0.021-0.052 Hz, 0.052-0.145 Hz, 0.145-0.6 Hz, and 0.6-1.6 Hz (defined as FR1-FR5), respectively. The relative energy contribution in FR3 was significantly larger at Hoku than at the two non-acupoints. Linear regression analysis revealed that the relative energy contribution in FR3 at Hoku significantly increased with the pulse pressure (R(2) = 0.48; P < 0.01 by F-test). Spectral analysis of the flux signal revealed that one of the major microcirculatory differences between acupoints and non-acupoints was in the different myogenic responses of their vascular beds. This information may aid the development of a method for the non-invasive study of the microcirculatory characteristics of the acupoint.

Comment on "Radial and longitudinal motion of the arterial wall: Their relation to pulsatile pressure and flow in the artery".

Most researchers derived the arterial pressure-wave equation by taking the axial blood flow as the major mechanism and assumed the flow motion was governed by the Navier-Stokes equation. However, only realistic hemodynamic theory can help to develop method for future healthcare. Here, we pointed out a different rigorous hemodynamic model that explained many physiological facts. Our previous work started directly from Newton's law by deriving the radial and the axial momentum equations of the elastic arterial wall system and of the enclosed blood system, with the contact forces between the two systems being counted explicitly. Our model has some important applications in future healthcare, such as providing a basis for studying the collective behavior of the cardiovascular system and developing quantitative methods for disease prevention and diagnosis.

Examining the response pressure along a fluid-filled elastic tube to comprehend Frank's arterial resonance model.

Frank first proposed the arterial resonance in 1899. Arteries are blood-filled elastic vessels, but resonance phenomena for a fluid-filled elastic tube has not drawn much attention yet. In this study, we measured the pressure along long elastic tubes in response to either a single impulsive water ejection or a periodic water input. The experimental results showed the low damped pressure oscillation initiated by a single impulsive water input; and the natural frequencies of the tube, identified by the peaks of the response in the frequency domain, were inversely proportional to the length of the tube. We found that the response to the periodic input reached a steady distributed oscillation with the same period of the input after a short transient time; and the optimal pressure response, or resonance, occurred when the pumping frequency was near the fundamental natural frequency of the system. We pointed out that the distributed forced oscillation could also be a suitable approach to analyze the arterial pressure wave. Unlike Frank's resonance model in which the whole arterial system was lumped together to a simple 0-D oscillator and got only one natural frequency, a tube has more than one natural frequency because the pressure P(z,t) is a 1-D oscillatory function of the axial position z and the time t. The benefit of having more than one natural frequency was then discussed.

The natural frequencies of the arterial system and their relation to the heart rate.

We assume the major function of the arterial system is transporting energy via its transverse vibration to facilitate the blood flowing all the way down to the microcirculation. A highly efficient system is related to maintaining a large pressure pulse along the artery for a given ventricular power. The arterial system is described as a composition of many infinitesimal Windkessels. The strong tethering in the longitudinal direction connects all the Windkessels together and makes them vibrate in coupled modes. It was assumed that at rest condition, the arterial system is in a steady distributed oscillatory state, which is the superposition of many harmonic modes of the transverse vibration in the arterial wall and the adherent blood. Every vibration mode has its own characteristic frequency, which depends on the geometry, the mass density, the elasticity, and the tethering of the arterial system. If the heart rate is near the fundamental natural frequency, the system is in a good resonance condition, we call this "frequency matching." In this condition, the pulsatile pressure wave is maximized. A pressure wave equation derived previously was used to predict this fundamental frequency. The theoretical result gave that heart rate is proportional to the average high-frequency phase velocity of the pressure wave and the inverse of the animal body length dimension. The area compliance related to the efficiency of the circulatory system is also mentioned.