Endothelial dysfunction, pulse wave velocity and augmentation index are correlated in subjects with systemic arterial hypertension?

Direct evidence of a relationship between endothelial function and more definitive measures of arterial stiffness are studied in patients with cardiovascular disease and risk factors, but the relationship between endothelial function and Pulse Wave Velocity (PWV), the gold standard measure of stiffness, has been described par- tially. Aim of our study was to evaluate a positive correlation between results of two non invasive methodologies: endothelium-dependent vasodilation (FMD) by right brachial scanning validated procedure and PWV and Augmentation Index (Aix) by using a simple upper arm cuff and an analysis of the oscillometric pres- sure curves (Arteriograph), in subjects with recent diagnosis of systemic arterial hypertension compared with healthy young people. Methods: We have studied 100 subjects, 50 healthy and 50 with a new diagnosis of systemic arterial hypertension without medications. All of the subjects were free of dyslipidemia, diabetes, previous cardiovascular event, arrhytmias, heart failure. Clinical and hemodynamic data Parameter Normotensives (n=50) Hypertensives (n=50) AGE 36.7 y 40.8 y Gender, male/female 27/23 30/20 BMI, kg/m2 24.1 25.5 Total cholesterol, mg/dl 185.5 194.8 Trygliceride, mg/dl 130 117.1 Glucose, mg/dl 92 81.1 Peripheral SBP, mmHg 113.7 150.0 Peripheral DBP, mmHg 75.8 95.5 Central SBP, mmHg 103.1 146.7 Central DBP, mmHg 71.6 94.8 MAP, mmHg 87.2 117.8 HR, bpm 72 66.3 Augmentation Index, % 22.2% 27.7% PWV, m/s 8.7 10.5 MDF 21,8% 9.4% Results in the table: Robust statistical correlation was found among different early preclinical parameters, FMD differentiates better the two population.