Pulse analyzing system using optical coherence tomography for oriental medical application

In oriental medicine, the pulse wave of a radial artery is a critical diagnosis factor. An oriental doctor puts a finger on the radial artery to sense the pulse wave of a radial artery. The pulse wave plays an important role because its shape, pressure, and duration determine the pathological status of a patient. Chongumaekbeop, which is a traditional technique for measuring the pulse by using a finger, is sometimes believed to be not reproducible due to the subjective judgment of the measurement location and pulse signal, so we performed a clinical experiment with a developed diagnosis equipment to produce quantitative and reproducible results. In this study, we measured the pulse wave of the radial artery and quantified the speed, intensity, and power of the pulse wave using optical coherence tomography (OCT). We confirmed the applicability of the developed system through an analysis of the pulse wave. We used two OCT systems whose measurement parameters are different because of the measurement limitation and analysis of vector components of pulse movement. We gathered 25 volunteers, compared and analyzed the experiment results with four oriental medicine doctors' diagnosis. The results showed an agreement of 88% in pulse speed, 64% in pulse intensity, and 72% in pulse power when comparing traditional measurements with the system using OCT. We confirmed the dynamical motion detection through the two-dimensional image to ensure the reproducibility of the developed system. Thus, if the OCT system is applied to pulse measurement systems in oriental medicine, it may partially substitute for traditional measurement methods.