Comparison between carotid-femoral and brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity as measures of arterial stiffness.
BACKGROUND
Arterial stiffness is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) is the most recognized and established index of arterial stiffness. An emerging automatic measure of PWV primarily used in the Asian countries is brachial-ankle PWV (baPWV).


METHODS
To systematically compare these two methodologies, we conducted a multicenter study involving a total of 2287 patients.


RESULTS
There was a significant positive relation between baPWV and cfPWV (r = 0.73). Average baPWV was approximately 20% higher than cfPWV. Both cfPWV and baPWV were significantly and positively associated with age (r = 0.56 and 0.64), systolic blood pressure (r = 0.49 and 0.61), and the Framingham risk score (r = 0.48 and 0.63). The areas under the receiver operating curves (ROCs) of PWV to predict the presence of both stroke and coronary artery disease were comparable between cfPWV and baPWV.


CONCLUSIONS
Collectively, these results indicate that cfPWV and baPWV are indices of arterial stiffness that exhibit similar extent of associations with cardiovascular disease risk factors and clinical events.
Tanaka
Hirofumi
H
Department of Kinesiology and Health Education, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA. htanaka@mail.utexas.edu
Munakata
Masanori
M
Kawano
Yuhei
Y
Ohishi
Mitsuru
M
Shoji
Tetsuo
T
Sugawara
Jun
J
Tomiyama
Hirofumi
H
Yamashina
Akira
A
Yasuda
Hisayo
H
Sawayama
Toshitami
T
Ozawa
Toshio
T
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D055109:Ankle Brachial Index; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity / Q000502:physiology*; D002339:Carotid Arteries / Q000502:physiology*; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D005263:Femoral Artery / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011673:Pulsatile Flow / Q000502:physiology*; D012372:ROC Curve; D012307:Risk Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult