Influence of Arterial Occlusion at Various Cuff Positions on Systemic Circulation Measured by Remote Photoplethymography (rPPG).

backgroundArterial occlusion is a ubiquitous medical procedure used in many clinical scenarios. However, no standard protocol exists for selecting the applied pressure or cuff position. As various pressures and positions may trigger different physiological responses, it is crucial to understand these peculiarities. The current work aims to investigate if there is any difference in the systemic response to the occlusion at various cuff positions (upper vs. lower arm).

methodsThe hands of healthy volunteers (10 volunteers) were occluded by inflating the blood pressure cuff to 200 mmHg, and the cuff was placed on the upper or lower arm. The remote photoplethysmography (rPPG) measurements of control and experimental hands were taken. To assess systemic response, we have analyzed the behavior of AC (low, respiratory, and heart rate frequency) components in green and red channels during occlusion and reperfusion.

resultsWe have not found a statistically significant difference in the low, respiratory, or heart rate spectra between occlusion at 200 mmHg in either cuff position.

conclusionsOur preliminary results show that the systemic response is similar at both cuff positions. However, findings for both experimental and control hands in most cases have small or medium effect sizes. As such, to avoid a Type II error, further experimentation with proper power calculations and an increased sample size is required.