Arterial stiffness changes in patients with cardiovascular risk factors but normal carotid intima–media thickness

Abstract

In a population with normal carotid IMT and without plaques, changes in arterial stiffness are significantly related to the number of risk factors. This information could be relevant for a more tailored primary prevention in patients with risk factors even in absence of structural atherosclerotic abnormalities.

Interplay between arterial stiffness and diastolic function

“…20 Previous studies have demonstrated possible clinical applications of this software, highlighting the feasibility of vascular function assessment in different clinical conditions. 38,[46][47][48] Our results confirm those from other studies that used the same system and showed an inverse relationship between diastolic function and echo-tracking parameters (elastic modulus, b stiffness and PWV) in diabetes patients, normal individuals and patients with different diseases. 49,50 Limitations Study population size was relatively small, particularly the subgroup with grade I diastolic dysfunction; this impairs the capacity to generalize our findings.…”

“…21,34,35 It is likely that the presence of cardiovascular risk factors accelerates the physiologic process of vascular aging, per recent reports. [36][37][38] The similarity of histologic changes in arterial wall and left ventricular myocardium may contribute to vascular myocardial stiffening based on similar risk factors. In this respect, impaired fasting glucose, insulin resistance and advanced glycation products, such as collagen and elastin, have been reported to deteriorate arterial and myocardial stiffening in asymptomatic patients with diabetes.…”

Passive heat therapy improves endothelial function, arterial stiffness and blood pressure in sedentary humans

“…; Mohammed et al . ). With heat therapy, superficial femoral arterial compliance increased, femoral β‐stiffness index decreased and aortic pulse wave velocity decreased, all indicating reduced arterial stiffness.…”

Clinical usefulness of cardio-ankle vascular index, local artery carotid stiffness and global longitudinal strain in subjects with cardiovascular risk factors

“…[4] For all these reasons, efforts are increasingly being targeted toward early diagnosis for intervening at an earlier stage of disease. Italian Society of Echocardiography has been involved from its origins in preventive field, developing several research programs,[4567891011121314] including Disfunzione Asintomatica VEntricolare Sinistra[15] study (on cardiac field), and considering deeply prognostic implications of vascular disease.…”

“…[513] Arterial stiffness has been recognized as an important pathophysiological determinant of systolic blood pressure and pulse pressure (PP) increases and therefore the cause of CV complications, demonstrating also an independent predictive value for CV events. Although there are many techniques and indices currently available, their large clinical application is limited by a lack of standardization, with important difficulties to effectively measure, quantify, and compare.…”