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Early stages of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are characterized by the loss and narrowing of terminal bronchioles in the lung, resulting in “air-trapping,” often occurring before overt emphysema manifests. Individuals with an airway-predominant phenotype of COPD display extensive lung air-trapping and are at greater cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk than COPD patients with an emphysema-predominant phenotype. We hypothesized that the degree of computed tomography (CT)-quantified lung air-trapping would be associated with greater aortic and carotid artery stiffness and lower endothelial function, known biomarkers of CVD risk. Lung air-trapping was associated with greater aortic stiffness (carotid femoral pulse wave velocity, CFPWV) ( r = 0.60, P = 0.007) and carotid β-stiffness ( r = 0.75, P = 0.0001) among adults with ( n = 10) and without ( n = 9) a clinical diagnosis of COPD and remained significant after adjusting for blood pressure (BP) and smoking history (pack-years) (carotid β-stiffness: r = 0.68, P < 0.01; CFPWV r = 0.53, P = 0.03). The association between lung air-trapping and carotid β-stiffness remained significant after additionally adjusting for age and forced expiratory volume 1(FEV1) ( r = 0.64, P = 0.01). In the COPD group only ( n = 10), lung air-trapping remained associated with carotid β-stiffness ( r = 0.82, P = 0.05) after adjustment for age, pack-years, and FEV1. In contrast, no association was observed between CFPWV and lung air-trapping after adjustment for BP, pack-years, age, and FEV1 ( r = 0.12, P = 0.83). Lung air-trapping was not associated with endothelial function (brachial artery flow-mediated dilation) in the entire cohort ( P = 0.80) or in patients with COPD only ( P = 0.71). These data suggest that carotid artery stiffness may be a mechanism explaining the link between airway-predominant phenotypes of COPD and high CVD risk. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Previous cross-sectional studies have demonstrated greater large elastic artery stiffness and lower endothelium-dependent dilation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients compared with controls. Furthermore, COPD patients with emphysema have greater aortic stiffness than non-COPD controls, and the degree of stiffness is associated with emphysema severity. The present study is the first to demonstrate that even before overt emphysema manifests, lung air-trapping is associated with carotid artery stiffness in COPD patients independent of blood pressure, age, or smoking history.