Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a problem over the world. It manifests in extremities as arterial stiffness. The diagnosis of the PADs it can be done by photoplethysmography (PPG). PPG is a non-invasive optical technique for detecting the arterial pulse waves and changes of waves. The PPG signal can contain clinically valuable information about status of conducting arteries and veins.

In this study, we present an examination of the pulse wave analysis by its time domain features for characterizing and quantifying arterial pulse wave components which were measured by a new PPG device. The issue of wave component separation by logarithmic normal function (LNF) both index finger and toe tip PPG in parallel measurements on healthy subjects are addressed. A comparative test procedure for pulse wave analysis based on a wave component separation was applied in addition to a second derivative method of the PPG signal (SNPPG), and a Lissajous-like plot. These tests were applied to arterial pulse wave time series for human ages between 5 and 81 years on 85 subjects. The results show good correlation of pulse wave changes as a function of age, thus support on the arterial pulse wave analysis based on blood pressure. The LNF model fitted to the PPG signals according to the correlations over 0.995 and residues represent the difference to be almost zero between the LNF and the PPG data points. The Lissajous plots demonstrate a high asymmetry dependent on age.