Inflammation and Arterial Stiffness in Systemic Vasculitis

Impaired aortic elastic properties in patients with systemic sarcoidosis

“…It is well known also that atherosclerosis and chronic inflammation have a significant role in endothelial dysfunction [30,31]. Impaired AoD and endothelial dysfunction have been described in several connective tissue diseases such as temporal arteritis, systemic sclerosis, ankylosing spondylitis, systemic vasculitis and polyarteritis nodosa, rheumatoid arthritis as well as Adamantiades-Bechet's disease [22,[32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39].…”

“…The fact that pulse pressure was measured with a sphygmomanometer might have introduced an error, but the final impact on the validity of the aortic distensibility is very low [9,20]. Pulse wave velocity was also used to estimate the elastic arterial properties [36] which, however, does not provide a direct measurement of the elastic properties of the aortic wall at different sites, but an overall estimation of the impedance of central arteries [19,20]. Furthermore, data regarding wave reflections and central aortic blood pressures would provide additional valuable information which remains to be investigated in future studies.…”

Arterial Stiffness, Endothelial Function and Novel Pharmacological Approaches

“…Interestingly, recent evidence suggests that brachial pulse pressure is correlated with C‐reactive protein and interleukin‐6 levels in apparently healthy men 54 and we have recently extended these findings by demonstrating that aortic pulse wave velocity and central pulse pressure are related to the level of inflammation in apparently healthy individuals 55 . Moreover, although inflammatory markers and arterial stiffness are raised in patients with systemic vasculitis, both parameters normalize in patients in remission 56 . Whether inflammation per se leads to arterial stiffening is still unclear, as are the mechanisms involved.…”