Bilateral PPG system with AR and Van der Pol screening methods for pad estimation in hemodialysis patients

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is highly encountered in hemodialysis patients. The rate of cardiovascular disease-Associated hospitalization and mortality among those PAD patients is higher than non- PAD subjects. Early detection of PAD could prevent peripheral limbs problems such as numbness, limp, and amputations, especially in hemodialysis patients' foot. The ankle brachial index (ABI) is a widely used tool for PAD screening; however it has many clinical limitations and is not suitable for the patients with vascular sclerosis. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to develop a bilateral photoplethysmography (PPG) system with Van der Pol (VDP) Oscillator detector based on Burg autoregressive (AR) method for PAD estimation. The proposed system could track the bilateral symmetry or asymmetry of PPG signals and classify the grade of PAD in hemodialysis patients. The test results from 32 patients showed that the proposed system has high accuracy of classification (over 90%) for hemodialysis patients.