Pulse wave velocity in elastic and muscular arteries: tracking stability and association with anthropometric and hemodynamic measurements

Pulse wave velocity (PWV) has been used as a measurement for arterial stiffness, a predictor of cardiovascular risk. Tracking describes the stability of a measurement over time. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the tracking stability of carotid-femoral (cfPWV), carotid-radial (crPWV) and carotid-distal (cdPWV) PWV in young adults and their associations with anthropometric and hemodynamic measurements. cfPWV, crPWV and cdPWV were measured by tonometric (SphygmoCor) technique in 531 subjects (aged 23.7±4.9 with 42.9% African Americans and 49.9% females). Out of these subjects, 142 subjects had all these 3 PWV measurements evaluated again during their next visit with an average follow-up time of 2 years. In the tracking analysis on the data from the 142 subjects, cfPWV displayed moderate to relatively high tracking ability ( r =0.61, P <0.001), whereas crPWV and cdPWV only displayed low to moderate tracking coefficients ( r =0.29 and r =0.36 respectively, P <0.001). In the association test on the data from the 531 subjects, all three PWV measurements showed significant correlations with age and obesity related measurements. cfPWV displayed stronger correlations with these parameters. In addition, all three PWVs showed significant correlations with systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, mean arterial pressure and pulse pressure with the exception that no correlation existed between crPWV and pulse pressure. The higher tracking ability of cfPWV and its higher association with obesity related measurements highlights the importance of using cfPWV compared with crPWV and cdPWV for research and clinical settings.