title: Regional pulse wave velocities and their cardiovascular risk factors among healthy middle-aged men: a cross-sectional population-based study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Both carotid-femoral (cf) pulse wave velocity (PWV) and brachial-ankle (ba) PWV employ arterial sites that are not consistent with the path of blood flow. Few previous studies have reported the differential characteristics between cfPWV and baPWV by simultaneously comparing these with measures of pure central (aorta) and peripheral (leg) arterial stiffness, i.e., heart-femoral (hf) PWV and femoral-ankle (fa) PWV in healthy populations. We aimed to identify the degree to which these commonly used measures of cfPWV and baPWV correlate with hfPWV and faPWV, respectively, and to evaluate whether both cfPWV and baPWV are consistent with either hfPWV or faPWV in their associations with cardiovascular (CV) risk factors.
  
  
  METHODS
  A population-based sample of healthy 784 men aged 40-49 (202 white Americans, 68 African Americans, 202 Japanese-Americans, and 282 Koreans) was examined in this cross-sectional study. Four regional PWVs were simultaneously measured by an automated tonometry/plethysmography system.
  
  
  RESULTS
  cfPWV correlated strongly with hfPWV (r = .81, P < .001), but weakly with faPWV (r = .12, P = .001). baPWV correlated moderately with both hfPWV (r = .47, P < .001) and faPWV (r = .62, P < .001). After stepwise regression analyses with adjustments for race, cfPWV shared common significant correlates with both hfPWV and faPWV: systolic blood pressure (BP) and body mass index (BMI). However, BMI was positively associated with hfPWV and cfPWV, and negatively associated with faPWV. baPWV shared common significant correlates with hfPWV: age and systolic BP. baPWV also shared the following correlates with faPWV: systolic BP, triglycerides, and current smoking.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Among healthy men aged 40 - 49, cfPWV correlated strongly with central PWV, and baPWV correlated with both central and peripheral PWVs. Of the CV risk factors, systolic BP was uniformly associated with all the regional PWVs. In the associations with factors other than systolic BP, cfPWV was consistent with central PWV, while baPWV was consistent with both central and peripheral PWVs.
authors.affiliation: College of Nursing, Korea University, Anam-Dong, Seongbuk-Gu, Seoul 136-705, South Korea. jinachoo@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Jina
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Choo
authors.forename: Chol
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Emma
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Barinas-Mitchell
authors.forename: Kamal
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Masaki
authors.forename: Bradley J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Willcox
authors.forename: Todd B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Seto
authors.forename: Hirotsugu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ueshima
authors.forename: Sunghee
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Katsuyuki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Miura
authors.forename: Lakshmi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Venkitachalam
authors.forename: Rachel H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Mackey
authors.forename: Rhobert W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.forename: Lewis H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Kuller
authors.forename: Kim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sutton-Tyrrell
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sekikawa
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D000367:Age Factors; D055109:Ankle Brachial Index; D001011:Aorta / Q000503:physiopathology; D001158:Arteries / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001213:Asian; D044466:Asian People; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001916:Brachial Artery / Q000503:physiopathology; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002339:Carotid Arteries / Q000503:physiopathology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005263:Femoral Artery / Q000503:physiopathology; D006254:Hawaii / Q000453:epidemiology; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008365:Manometry; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010414:Pennsylvania / Q000453:epidemiology; D010991:Plethysmography; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D063177:Pulse Wave Analysis; D056910:Republic of Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D059289:Vascular Stiffness; D044465:White People