Modeling radial artery pressure waveforms using curve fitting: Comparison of four types of fitting functions

Background: Curve fitting has been intensively used to model artery pressure waveform (APW). The modelling accuracy can greatly influence the calculation of APWs parameters that serve as quantitative measures for assessing the morphological characteristics of APWs. However, it is unclear which fitting function is more suitable for APW. In this paper, we compared the fitting accuracies of four types of fitting functions, including Raleigh function, double-exponential function, Gaussian function, and logarithmic normal function, in modeling radial artery pressure waveform (RAPW). Methods: RAPWs were recorded from 24 healthy subjects in resting supine position. To perform curve fitting, 10 consecutive stable RAPWs for each subject were randomly selected and each waveform was fitted using three instances of the same fitting function. Results: The mean absolute percentage errors (MAPE) of the fitting results were 5.89% +/- 0.46% (standard deviation), 3.31% +/- 0.22%, 2.25% +/- 0.31%, and 1.49% +/- 0.28% for Raleigh function, double-exponential function, Gaussian function, and logarithmic normal function, respectively. Their corresponding mean maximum residual errors were 23.71%, 17.83%, 6.11%, and 5.49%. Conclusions: The performance of using Gaussian function and logarithmic normal function to model RAPW is comparable, and is better than that of using Raleigh function and double-exponential function. (C) 2018 Association for Research into Arterial Structure and Physiology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.