Clinical InvestigationVascular Disease and LV Diastolic FunctionCarotid Artery Stiffness and Diastolic Function in Subjects without Known Cardiovascular Disease
Section snippets
Study Protocol
Ninety-two consecutive Caucasian volunteers without known cardiovascular risk factors and/or overt cardiovascular disease (58 men, 34 women; mean age, 46.0 ± 13.3 years) were enrolled. The study population, referred to the local hospital, had undergone voluntary screening for cardiovascular disease at our outpatient clinic, which included a questionnaire about medical history, the use of drugs in the previous 5 years, cardiovascular risk factors, and lifestyle habits (alcohol intake, smoking,
Results
Study population characteristics, echocardiographic parameters, and arterial stiffness variables are shown in Table 1.
Correlations between β and Ep and diastolic function indices are presented in Table 2. The correlations were negative with E and Em waves and E/A ratio and positive with the late portion of diastolic function (A wave) and deceleration time. Am and E/Em ratio were not correlated with β and Ep. IMT was also associated with A wave, E/A ratio, Em, and Am but not with E wave (Table 2
Discussion
To the best of our knowledge, some data are available on the association between arterial stiffness and diastolic function among subjects with cardiovascular risk factors,17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 but little is known about this association in subjects free of overt cardiovascular risk factors.
It has been shown that the local measurement of arterial stiffness may be useful for the detection of early arterial changes23 and as a predictor of adverse cardiovascular events, because it can reflect large
Conclusions
Among subjects without known cardiovascular disease and not taking medications, changes in central carotid stiffness are in line with LV diastolic function independently of age, sex, PP, and BMI. Moreover, the present study demonstrated that in these subjects, there is not complete agreement between arterial stiffness and IMT, confirming that the β, Ep, and IMT measurements used to assess arterial stiffness in clinical practice are not interchangeable.
Multiple plausible explanations for this
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