A new method for analyzing arterial blood pressure is presented in this
report. The technique is based on the scattering transform and consists in
solving the spectral problem associated to a one-dimensional Schr\"odinger
operator with a potential depending linearly upon the pressure. This potential
is then expressed with the discrete spectrum which includes negative
eigenvalues and corresponds to the interacting components of an N-soliton. The
approach is similar to a nonlinear Fourier transform where the solitons play
the role of sine and cosine components. The method provides new cardiovascular
indices that seem to contain relevant physiological information. We first show
how to use this approach to decompose the arterial blood pressure pulse into
elementary waves and to reconstruct it or to separate its systolic and
diastolic phases. Then we analyse the parameters computed from this technique
in two physiological conditions, the head-up 60 degrees tilt test and the
isometric handgrip test, widely used for studying short term cardiovascular
control. Promising results are obtained