Fibre optic solutions were explored in the acquisition of the pulse wave in the carotid artery, for its morphology analysis and central arterial pressure calculation. Different systems are presented, based on silica fibre Bragg gratings and intensity modulation using plastic optical fibres. The latter solution proved to have the best performance and cost combination. Therefore, it was subjected to a pre-clinical study, comparing its performance with a standard commercial device, in a small cohort of healthy individuals. Having been obtained a very strong correlation between the two techniques, the device was proposed for clinical evaluation. The probe's performance was therefore compared to the same non-invasive commercial device, in a cohort of hypertensive individuals. Invasive testing was also performed, using as reference pressure waves obtained in the lumen of the aortic artery in cardiac catheterization context. In both trials very strong correlation coefficients were obtained as well as medium pressure differences in the range verified for commercial devices. The proposed device shows to be a promising low cost solution for central arterial pressure assessment.
