Abstract
Summary
Ballistocardiograms of the Starr and Nickerson type exhibit prominent resonance peaks, and contain no significant frequency components above 10 CPS. Ultra-low-frequency ballistocardiograms are distorted by body resonance to a far lesser degree, and exhibit components to at least 20 CPS. The band 0.5-20 CPS is therefore the minimum though not necessarily optimum frequency range for force ballistocardiography. The effects of respiration and vasoactive drugs suggest that harmonic analysis may prove useful as a diagnostic criterion for clinical ballistocardiography. Frequency spectra of blood velocity and acceleration pulses and of velocity and acceleration ballistocardiograms are strikingly similar, suggesting a cause and effect relationship between these wave forms.
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