title: Conduit artery compliance and distensibility are not necessarily reduced in hypertension.
abstract: The goal of this study was to investigate whether the elastic behavior of conduit arteries of humans or rats is altered as a result of concomitant hypertension. Forearm arterial cross-sectional compliance-pressure curves were determined noninvasively by means of a high precision ultrasonic echo-tracking device coupled to a photoplethysmograph (Finapres system) allowing simultaneous arterial diameter and finger blood pressure monitoring. Seventeen newly diagnosed hypertensive patients with a humeral blood pressure of 163/103 +/- 4.4/2.2 mm Hg (mean +/- SEM) and 17 age- and sex-matched normotensive controls with a humeral blood pressure of 121/77 +/- 3.2/1.9 mm Hg were included in the study. Compliance-pressure curves were also established at the carotid artery of 16-week-old anesthetized spontaneously hypertensive rats (n = 14) as well as Wistar-Kyoto normotensive animals (n = 15) using the same echo-tracking device. In these animals, intra-arterial pressure was monitored in the contralateral carotid artery. Mean blood pressures averaged 197 +/- 4 and 140 +/- 3 mm Hg in the hypertensive and normotensive rats, respectively. Despite the considerable differences in blood pressure, the diameter-pressure and cross-sectional compliance-pressure and distensibility-pressure curves were not different when hypertensive patients or animals were compared with their respective controls. These results suggest that the elastic behavior of a medium size muscular artery (radial) in humans and of an elastic artery (carotid) in rats is not necessarily altered by an increase in blood pressure.
authors.affiliation: Hypertension Division, University Hospital (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hayoz
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rutschmann
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Perret
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Niederberger
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tardy
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Mooser
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nussberger
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Waeber
authors.forename: H R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Brunner
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001158:Arteries / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001794:Blood Pressure; D004548:Elasticity; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D011918:Rats, Inbred SHR; D011921:Rats, Inbred WKY; D012016:Reference Values; D014463:Ultrasonography