Harmonic analysis of peripheral pulse for screening subjects at high risk of diabetes

Abstract

Power spectral density (PSD) of peripheral pulses in human has been investigated in the past for its clinical applications. Continuing the efforts, data acquired using Peripheral Pulse Analyser in research projects sponsored by Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences in 207 control subjects, 18 descendants of diabetic patients and 22 patients with systemic hypertension have been subjected to PSD analysis for its study of harmonics. Application software, named Pulse Harmonic Analyser specifically developed for this work, selected 131,072 samples from each data file, obtained PSD, derived 52 PHA parameters and saved them in an Excel sheet. Coefficient of variation in control data was reduced significantly by application of Central Limit Theorem, which enabled use of parametric methods for statistical analysis of the observations. Data in hypertensive patients have shown significant difference in comparison to that of controls in eight parameters at low values of α and β. Data in offspring of diabetic patients also have shown significant difference in one parameter indicating its usefulness in screening subjects with genetic disposition of acquiring Type-II Diabetes. PHA analysis has also yielded sub-harmonic components, which are related to combined variability in the heart rate, pulse volume and pulse morphology and has a potential to become method of choice for real time variability monitoring.

Keywords:

• Peripheral pulse
• harmonic analysis
• genetic disposition
• heart rate variability
• fundamental harmonic
• type II diabetes

Acknowledgements

Authors are grateful to Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences, Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India, Dr. Srinath Rao, Professor, Father Muller Homeopathic Medical College, Mangalore and Dr. Jayaprakash Alva, Dean, Father Muller Medical College, Mangalore for permitting to use their PPA data for the present analysis. Authors also thank Smt. Anita Behere, Head Electronics Division (ED), Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and Dr. Santosh Narayankhedkar, Principal, MGMCET, for their encouragement and support in execution of BRNS projects and Shri Vineet Sinha, ED, BARC for providing PPA instruments for recording of peripheral pulses.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.