Association between novel arterial stiffness indices and risk factors of cardiovascular disease

BACKGROUND: Prevention and early detection of arterial stiffness are required to avoid severe cardiovascular events. Recently, new noninvasive arterial stiffness indices, the arterial pressure volume index (API) and the arterial velocity pulse index (AVI), have been developed. The purpose of this study was to examine the clinical validity of these new indices by investigating the association between known risk factors of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and API or AVI in a large population. METHODS: This cross-sectional survey included 7248 adults who underwent an annual medical checkup at a single medical institution. API and AVI were measured using cuff oscillometry by trained nurses. We used correlation coefficients, t-tests, and multiple regression analyses to evaluate associations, and calculated intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) to examine test-retest reliabilities of these indices. RESULTS: Mean age was 45.5 years (SD = 5.8), and 4083 (56.3 %) participants were men, while 3165 were women. Mean values of API and AVI were 25.1 (SD = 7.0) and 16.6 (SD = 5.4), respectively. API was strongly correlated with body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure (sBP), and diastolic blood pressure (dBP) (r > 0.3, p < 0.001). AVI was strongly correlated with age, sBP, and API (r > 0.3, p < 0.001). Multiple regression analyses showed that sex, age, BMI, and sBP were independently associated with API. Sex, age, BMI, sBP, fasting plasma glucose (FPG), and smoking condition were also independently associated with AVI. As reliabilities of measurements, the ICC of API was 0.74, and the ICC of AVI was 0.80. CONCLUSIONS: These new noninvasive arterial stiffness indices, which had high test-retest reliabilities, were associated with known risk factors of CVD. Further study is warranted to determine the clinical validity of these indices.