Parameters of pulse wave velocity: determinants and reference values assessed in the population-based study LIFE-Adult

Abstract

Aims and backgroundParameters of arterial stiffness such as pulse wave velocity (PWV) were recently proposed as independent risk factors of cardiovascular events. We analyse three PWV parameters in the large population-based study LIFE-Adult to identify risk factors, normal and reference values.Methods and resultsBrachial-ankle (ba), brachial-femoral (bf) and carotid-femoral (cf) PWV assessment was performed using Vicorder device. 8509 participants aged 19–80 were analysed. PWV parameters were moderately correlated (r(ba/bf) = 0.6, r(ba/cf) = 0.46, r(bf/cf) = 0.59). Age and blood pressure are the dominant determinants of PWV parameters explaining > 18% of variability. Sex was only relevant for bfPWV and cfPWV. All further analysed cardiovascular and other risk factors are of minor importance. We provide age-dependent percentiles for the population (reference values) and for the subgroup of normotonic individuals. All percentiles show a strong increase with age. The difference between normotonic and all individuals is small for younger age groups but increases up to 1 m/s for elderly subjects.ConclusionOur study confirms and further underpins the strong impact of age and blood pressure on arterial stiffness and the relatively weak contribution of other factors, supporting an independent role of arterial stiffness in cardiovascular disease development. Age-dependent reference and normal values were provided on the basis of the so far largest study sample facilitating the implementation of PWV assessment in clinical practice. Due to better compliance, handling and stronger association with age and blood pressure, baPWV could serve as an alternative to cfPWV. Follow-up data are required to estimate the clinical significance of specified PWV cut-offs.

Local endothelial DNA repair deficiency causes aging-resembling endothelial-specific dysfunction

“…In contrast to aorta, carotid arteries did not show a change in vascular stiffness, again pointing to location-dependent difference. Increase in arterial stiffness with age, detected as increase in pulse wave velocity (PWV), is considered as a solid marker of vascular aging in humans [40]. PWV can be measured over different regions, such as from carotid to femoral, from brachial to carotid and from brachial to femoral artery.…”

Comparing oscillometric and tonometric methods to assess pulse wave velocity: a population-based study

“…This aspect translates into an exponential relationship between arterial stiffness and age, which indeed seems to be unreliable in the general population. It is important to note that the relative contribution on o-PWV of age and SBP found here, refers to the devices we tested and might not be reliable for other oscillometric devices [29][30][31][32].…”

Genome-wide association analysis of pulse wave velocity traits provide new insights into the causal relationship between arterial stiffness and blood pressure

“…Validity and intra- and inter-observer reliability of the Vicorder device were shown to be good [ 9 ]. As recommended in Baier et al [ 10 ], we used the first measurement available for baPWV and cfPWV while for bfPWV, we averaged values for first and second measurement, since variance of bfPWV was significantly higher than it was for baPWV and cfPWV. Measurements were discarded if the difference between first and second measurement was >5m/s (baPWV), >10m/s (cfPWV) and >25m/s (bfPWV), respectively.…”

“…Accordingly, the three PWV traits are only moderately correlated so that one cannot expect the same genetic background. In addition the variance in the measurements of the PWV modes is different [10], sample sizes for PWV-GWAS are still limited and assessments are note easily comparable [9]. All these effects introduce heterogeneity in the results.…”

“…Epidemiologic studies suggest that arterial stiffness is an independent predictor for cardiovascular risk and can be considered as an intermediate phenotype [6,7]. Pulse wave velocity (PWV) has been proposed as a reliable method to measure arterial stiffness [8,9] and reference curves for carotid-femoral PWV (cfPWV), brachial-ankle PWV (baPWV) and brachial-femoral PWV (bfPWV) were established accordingly [10]. Heritability of PWV was shown to be moderate in between 0.11 and 0.40 for cfPWV [11,12].…”