Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of global mortality, resulting in 20.5 million deaths in 2021. Conventional risk assessment can detect major CVDs early but fail to predict valvular and central venous dysfunctions. However, analyzing jugular venous pulse (JVP) contour markers provide reliable insights into several cardiac anomalies. Central venous line catheterization is the gold standard for JVP measurement but is limited to critical care units. The popular B-mode ultrasound systems offer reliable JVP signal acquisition, but their complexity and requirements limit their field usability. To address these limitations, we propose a portable, image-free multimodal system for capturing JVP signals and assessing its fiduciary markers.

The proposed instrumentation system comprises of a multimodal acquisition probe that can capture high-fidelity jugular venous pulses. The beat-to-beat JVP pulse contour markers were assessed using the developed cycle segmentation and fiduciary point algorithms. The feasibility analysis of the initial prototype, the A-mode ultrasound system was conducted on a cohort of 25 healthy volunteers, and the beat-to-beat variability of JV diameter was found to be less than 6 %. The developed system could acquire high-fidelity JVP pulses (SNR > 20dB) with a temporal resolution of 4 ms and an amplitude resolution of 10 μm. The accuracy of the system was validated against the clinical grade B-mode ultrasound system during baseline and intervention conditions. A novel marker, local venous pulse wave velocity was evaluated by measuring the transit time between JVP signals from two sites along the jugular vein.

In this seminar, a brief overview of the current state-of-the-art JVP assessment techniques will be discussed. Further, the proposed instrumentation system, measurement feasibility, and validation against the routine clinical approach will be discussed. To support our findings, we will present the data acquired from the in-vivo trials involving healthy human participants (N = 100). Finally, the seminar would conclude by acknowledging the measurement concerns and suggesting potential future research directions. Future research will concentrate on dedicated clinical trials on diseased populations to validate the performance of the developed system for cardiac anomaly detection. The association with other clinical markers will also be explored.