A method and apparatus determine certain cardiac medical parameters that are useful is diagnosing cardiovascular disease. The apparatus is designed to carry out the method, which includes the steps of:(a) inflating a blood pressure cuff on the brachial artery to a supra-systolic pressure(b) sensing a sequence of pressure pulse waveforms associated with the brachial artery that result from a plurality of cardiac ejection cycles(c) averaging the waveforms to produce an average, representative waveform having an initial, incident wave portion and a reflected wave portion(d) analyzing the representative waveform to determine a value of one or more cardiac medical parameters including the reflection wave ratio (RWR), the reflected wave transit time (RWTT), the maximum amplitude of the initial pressure wave (PS1), the maximum rise (slope) of the initial pressure wave (dp/dt), and/or the systolic ejection period (SEP) and(e) displaying the value of the medical parameter(s).
