title: Correlation between Proximal Abdominal Aortic Stiffness Measured by Ultrasound and Brachial-Ankle Pulse Wave Velocity.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The proximal portion of the abdominal aorta (AA) is characterized by minimal arteriosclerosis compared with other aortic segments. To assess the clinical usefulness of this characteristic, the correlation between ultrasonographically measured proximal AA stiffness and brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) was examined.
  
  
  METHODS
  285 subjects were analyzed, half with hypertension and half with normal blood pressure. Proximal AA was examined using ultrasonography; strain, distensibility, elastic modulus, and the stiffness index were determined. After adjustment for age, gender, body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and heart rate, the relationships between baPWV and all these parameters were tested.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age of the study subjects was 58.1±12.8 years and the mean BMI was 24.3±3.8 kg/cm(2). 58.9% of the subjects were female. 42.8% were hypertensive subjects. Among the hypertensive subjects, 56.0% were taking antihypertensive medication. Adjusted partial correlation coefficients for the relationship between baPWV with strain, distensibility, elastic modulus, and the stiffness index of the proximal AA were -0.203 (p=0.01), -0.121 (p=0.129), 0.304 (p=0.0001), and 0.299 (p=0.0001), respectively, in normotensive subjects. In the multivariate analyses, such correlations were observed mainly in the normotensive group, whereas there was no association among hypertensive subjects regardless of antihypertensive medication status.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  baPWV is moderately correlated with the stiffness parameters for the proximal AA, mainly in normotensive subjects.
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Young-Hyo
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: Rentsendorj
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Enkhdorj
authors.forename: Bae Keun
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Soon Gil
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Jeong Hyun
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Jinho
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shin
keywords: Abdominal aorta; Arteriosclerosis; Blood pressure; Elastic modulus; Pulse wave velocity