An Electro-Optical Method for Differential Diagnosis of Pathologies of Blood Supply to the Brain
This work is devoted to the development of a new simplified method for express diagnostics of cerebral blood supply disorders of a vertebrogenic and non-vertebral nature based on electrocardiogram and photoplethysmogram data. The research was conducted using the example of vertebral artery syndrome in osteochondrosis of the cervical spine and somatoform dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system, respectively. Several experimental studies into the dynamics of heart rate variability and differential indicators of the coordinated work of the heart and blood vessels were carried out according to the data of electrocardiography and photoplethysmography. Three experimental groups included healthy volunteers and volunteers with cerebral blood supply disorders connected with either the loss of plasticity and narrowing of brain blood vessels or their mechanical squeezing. According to the research results, statistically significant (with a significance level of less than 0.05) differences by a number of indicators were revealed between the experimental groups. A conventional discriminant analysis of the indicators of the coordinated work of the heart and blood vessels was carried out for all experimental groups in order to determine criteria for differentiating people with vertebrogenic disorders, non-vertebral disorders and healthy volunteers. It is concluded that three variables can be used for such differentiation, each of which describes the coordinated work of the heart and blood vessels in a specific way.