Remote physiological monitoring of neck blood vessels

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of death globally. Current CVD diagnostic tests fail to predict early cardiovascular events and assess the risk of developing early CVD. Researchers are actively looking for biomarkers for CVD prediction, such as blood pressure, arterial stiffness, and pulse wave velocity (PWV). Several population-based clinical studies suggest increased PWV is associated with increased CVD mortality. In this study, we propose using a high-speed camera to study PWV as a biomarker of CVD with remote photoplethysmography (rPPG). We selected a reference signal based on distinct features, including peak and modulation depth variations, and used correlation to find the relationship between the local signals and the reference signal. The results revealed areas on the neck that positively and negatively correlated with selected reference signals, possibly representing the distribution of the significant neck vessels: carotid artery and jugular vein, which implies the feasibility of the remote estimation of local PWV using a high-speed camera, thereby expanding the potential applications of rPPG used for PWV estimation and assisted the CVD diagnosis.