He who cures a disease may be the skill fullest, but he that prevents it is the safest physician. -Thomas Fuller 1608-
1661, English Clergyman and Historian.This comment, made by one of the most emblematic personalities of the 17th century, highlights the widely accepted opinion of preventing, rather than curing, a disease. Prevention of cardiovascular (CV) disease, the leading cause of death worldwide, 1 remains a challenging aspect in clinical practice and requires the timely recognition of patients at risk for CV events. Arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, and obesity, along with other traditional risk factors, have been identified as strong and independent predictors of CV disease; however, even these established risk factors fail to fully predict CV events. 2 Research efforts have been emphasizing in unveiling novel CV risk factors that alone, or in combination, could offer a better stratification of CV risk. For a marker to be established as a valid risk factor, strong data indicating an independent association between the marker and CV morbidity and mortality, along with evidence supporting the marker's ability to predict CV events beyond traditional risk factors, is needed. More importantly, the management of emerging risk factors should offer reduction in CV outcomes. Nonetheless, a number of studies have demonstrated an association between increased baPWV and CV morbidity and mortality in several populations. The Hisayama study followed more than 2900 subjects free of CV disease for more than 7 years. It was found that a 20% increase in baPWV was associated with a 1.3-fold risk increase for CV events after adjustment for potential risk factors. 6 Similarly, another population-based prospective cohort study showed that among 4164 patients without a history of CV disease, baPWV was an independent predictor of future CV events, and values >18 m/s were associated with a 1.7-fold risk increase for CV events compared with patients with PWV lower than 18 m/s. 7 The J-TOPP trial evaluated the association of baPWV with the incidence of CV disease in 662 hypertensive subjects. Patients with high, compared with low, baPWV had more CV events and less 8-year cardiovascular-free survival rates. Similarly, a sub analysis of the CSPPT trial unveiled that among 3310 hypertensive patients, the risk for stroke was significantly higher in patients with baPWV at the highest quartile compared with those in the lower quartiles. 9 Important information comes from a sub-analysis of the IMPACT-ABI registry evaluating the association between baPWV