Brachial artery hyperemic blood flow velocities are related to carotid atherosclerosis.
OBJECTIVE
Cardiovascular (CV) risk relates to the blood flow velocity pattern in the brachial artery during hyperemia, especially to the hyperaemic systolic to diastolic mean blood flow velocity (SDFV) ratio. Here, we investigated the relations between SDFV in the brachial artery and different characteristics of carotid atherosclerosis.


METHODS
Data were collected from 1016 70-year-olds participating in the Prospective Investigation of Uppsala Seniors study. Doppler recordings of blood flow velocity during hyperemia were analysed in the brachial artery. In the carotid artery, intima-media thickness (IMT) was recorded together with an assessment of echogenicity by the Grey scale median (GSM) method in both overt plaques and in the intima-media complex (IM-GSM).


RESULTS
The SDFV ratio was related to the number of carotid arteries affected by plaque (P = 0.018) and inversely to plaque echogenicity (P = 0.0003). The SDFV ratio was also related to IMT (P = 0.0022) and inversely to IM-GSM (P = 0.0001). These relations were statistically significant also after adjusting for major CV risk factors, individually as well as summarised as the Framingham risk score.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results indicate that the hyperemic systolic to diastolic blood flow velocity ratio in the brachial artery is related to atherosclerosis in the carotid artery.
Järhult
Susann J
SJ
Department of Medicine, Uppsala University Hospital, Uppsala 75185, Sweden. susann.jarhult@medsci.uu.se
Sundström
Johan
J
Lind
Lars
L
D000368:Aged; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D001916:Brachial Artery / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002340:Carotid Artery Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006940:Hyperemia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014463:Ultrasonography