Elevated arterial stiffness evaluated by brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity is deleterious for the prognosis of patients with heart failure.
BACKGROUND
Arterial stiffness is used as an index of arteriosclerosis. The goal of this study was to clarify whether increased arterial stiffness, evaluated by measuring the brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV), is a risk factor for the prognosis of heart failure (HF) patients.


RESULTS
After examination of the baPWV, as well as the levels of neurohumoral factors, the 72 enrolled HF patients were followed up for a survival study, which had a primary endpoint of re-admission because of HF. The secondary endpoint was cardiac death. Results of Cox proportional hazards modeling revealed that baPWV, systolic blood pressure (BP) and brain natriuretic peptide level were factors that affected survival (P<0.05). The patients were divided into 2 groups according to the cutoff baPWV value (1,750 cm/s). Although hemodynamic factors were similar between the groups, the high-baPWV group had a lower event-free survival rate for the primary and secondary endpoints than the low-baPWV group (P<0.05). BP at re-admission was higher in the high-baPWV group (174+/-30 mmHg) than in the low-baPWV group (121+/-33 mmHg, P<0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
Elevated arterial stiffness is a risk factor for re-admission or cardiac death of HF patients.
Meguro
Tomomi
T
Department of Medicine, Tokyo Electric Power Company Hospital, Tokyo, Japan. manusgm@attglobal.net
Nagatomo
Yuji
Y
Nagae
Atsushi
A
Seki
Chiori
C
Kondou
Nobusuke
N
Shibata
Masaru
M
Oda
Yutaka
Y
D000368:Aged; D001158:Arteries / Q000503:physiopathology; D001161:Arteriosclerosis / Q000401:mortality / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001794:Blood Pressure; D003643:Death; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000401:mortality / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011674:Pulse; D012307:Risk Factors; D015996:Survival Rate