title: Quantification of the Interrelationship between Brachial-Ankle and Carotid-Femoral Pulse Wave Velocity in a Workplace Population.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (PWV) is increasingly used for the measurement of arterial stiffness. In the present study, we quantified the interrelationship between brachial-ankle and carotid-femoral PWV in a workplace population, and investigated the associations with cardiovascular risk factors and carotid intima-media thickness (IMT).
  
  
  METHODS
  Brachial-ankle and carotid-femoral PWV were measured using the Omron-Colin VP1000 and SphygmoCor devices, respectively. We investigated the interrelationship by the Pearson's correlation analysis and Bland-Altman plot, and performed sensitivity and specificity analyses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The 954 participants (mean ± standard deviation age 42.6 ± 14.2 years) included 630 (66.0%) men and 203 (21.3%) hypertensive patients. Brachial-ankle (13.4 ± 2.7 m/s) and carotid-femoral PWV (7.3 ± 1.6 m/s) were significantly correlated in all subjects (r = 0.75) as well as in men (r = 0.72) and women (r = 0.80) separately. For arterial stiffness defined as a carotid-femoral PWV of 10 m/s or higher, the sensitivity and specificity of brachial-ankle PWV of 16.7 m/s or higher were 72 and 94%, respectively. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.953. In multiple stepwise regression, brachial-ankle and carotid-femoral PWV were significantly (p < 0.001) associated with age (partial r = 0.33 and 0.34, respectively) and systolic blood pressure (partial r = 0.71 and 0.66, respectively). In addition, brachial-ankle and carotid-femoral PWV were significantly (p < 0.001) associated with carotid IMT (r = 0.57 and 0.55, respectively) in unadjusted analysis, but not in analysis adjusted for cardiovascular risk factors (p ≥ 0.08).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Brachial-ankle and carotid-femoral PWV were closely correlated, and had similar determinants. Brachial-ankle PWV can behave as an ease-of-use alternative measure of arterial stiffness for assessing cardiovascular risk.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Epidemiological Studies and Clinical Trials, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Hypertension, The Shanghai Institute of Hypertension, Department of Hypertension, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Yi-Bang
authors.initials: YB
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Centre for Epidemiological Studies and Clinical Trials, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Hypertension, The Shanghai Institute of Hypertension, Department of Hypertension, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Centre for Epidemiological Studies and Clinical Trials, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Hypertension, The Shanghai Institute of Hypertension, Department of Hypertension, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Chang-Sheng
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Sheng
authors.affiliation: Centre for Epidemiological Studies and Clinical Trials, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Hypertension, The Shanghai Institute of Hypertension, Department of Hypertension, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Qi-Fang
authors.initials: QF
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Centre for Epidemiological Studies and Clinical Trials, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Hypertension, The Shanghai Institute of Hypertension, Department of Hypertension, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Ji-Guang
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Wang
keywords: Age; Arterial stiffness; Intima-media thickness; Pulse wave velocity; Systolic blood pressure