RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Arterial pathophysiology and comparison of two devices for pulse wave velocity assessment in elderly men: the British regional heart study
JF Open Heart
JO Open Heart
FD British Cardiovascular Society
SP e000645
DO 10.1136/openhrt-2017-000645
VO 4
IS 2
A1 Elizabeth A Ellins
A1 Kirsten E Smith
A1 Lucy T Lennon
A1 Olia Papacosta
A1 S Goya Wannamethee
A1 Peter H Whincup
A1 Julian P Halcox
YR 2017
UL http://openheart.bmj.com/content/4/2/e000645.abstract
AB Objective Vascular disease is highly prevalent in the elderly. This study aimed to evaluate arterial phenotype in elderly men and compare carotid–femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) assessed by two techniques (Sphygmocor (S)and Vicorder (V)).Methods 1722 men (72–92 years), participants in the British Regional Heart Study, underwent ultrasound assessment of carotid intima–media thickness (cIMT), carotid distensibility coefficient and presence of carotid plaque. cfPWV and ankle brachial pressure index (ABPI) were also assessed. 123 men returned for between visit reproducibility assessments.Results Good reproducibility was demonstrated in all measures (Gwet’s agreement=0.8 for plaque, intraclass correlation=0.65 for ABPI and coefficient of variation <13% for all other measures). Measurements were obtained in >90% of men for all measures except cfPWV(S) and ABPI. In 1122 men with both cfPWV(V) and cfPWV(S) data, cfPWV(S) was greater than cfPWV(V) (mean difference=0.23,95%CI 0.10 to 0.37 m/s). cfPWV(V) was higher at low cfPWV values and cfPWV(S) was higher at high cfPWV values. Correlation of V transit time (TT) against S carotid and femoral TT demonstrated that the slope of the regression line for femoral TT was steeper than for carotid TT, resulting in a proportionally greater subtraction of carotid TT from femoral TT at higher PWVs.Conclusions Reproducible, satisfactory quality non-invasive measurements of vascular phenotype were obtainable in a large proportion of elderly men. The discrepancy in results between the two PWV measures may partly be due to the differential impact of subtracting carotid TT when deriving cfPWV(S) across the clinical PWV range.