Respiratory variations in the reflection mode photoplethysmographic signal. Relationships to peripheral venous pressure.

Photoplethysmography (PPG) is a non-invasive optical way of measuring variations in blood volume and perfusion in the tissue, used in pulse oximetry for instance. Respiratory-induced intensity variations (RIIVs) in the PPG signal exist, but the physiological background is not fully understood. Respiration causes variations in the blood volume in the peripheral vascular bed. It was hypothesised that the filling of peripheral veins is one of the important factors involved. In 16 healthy subjects, the respiratory synchronous variations from a PPG reflection mode signal and the peripheral venous pressure (PVP) were recorded. Variations of tidal volume, respiratory rate and contribution from abdominal and thoracic muscles gave significant and similar amplitude changes in both RIIV and the respiratory variation of PVP (p<0.01). The highest amplitudes of both signals were found at the largest tidal volume, lowest respiratory rate and during mainly thoracic breathing, respectively. The coherence between PVP and RIIV signals was high, the median (quartile range) being 0.78 (0.42). Phase analysis showed that RIIV was usually leading PVP, but variations between subjects were large. Although respiratory-induced variations in PVP and PPG showed a close correlation in amplitude variation, a causal relationship between the signals could not be demonstrated.