Association between arterial stiffness and risk of coronary artery disease in a community-based population.

BACKGROUND: Arterial stiffness is well known as an important risk factor for coronary artery disease. In this study, we aimed to investigate the association between carotid-ankle pulse wave velocity (caPWV) and risk of coronary artery disease (CAD), and the interaction between pulse wave velocity (PWV) and other potential risk factors of CAD. METHODS: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted for subjects living in Beijing, China. We collected 213 subjects with coronary artery disease and 1 266 subjects without CAD between September 2007 and January 2009 in a community center of Beijing. A multivariate Logistic regression analysis was carried out to assess the odds ratios of factors related to CAD. RESULTS: We found CAD subjects were more likely to have a higher body massindex (BMI), fasting glucose, uric acid, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, high-sensitivity Creactive protein (hs-CRP), carotic-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) and caPWV (P < 0.05), and CAD subjects had a significantly lower HDL cholesterol levels (P < 0.05). Moreover, the proportion of hypertension in CAD subjects was significantly higher than non-CAD subjects. The multiple Logistic regression analysis showed that hypertension, higher uric acid, hs-CRP, cfPWV and caPWV levels significantly increased the risk of CAD, with ORs (CI) of 1.47 (1.25-1.74), 1.17 (1.01-1.26), 1.35 (1.10-1.67), 1.15 (1.09-1.19) and 1.07 (1.01-1.15), respectively. Higher HDL cholesterol was significantly associated with reduced risk of CAD, with ORs (CI) of 0.58 (0.40-0.83). In addition, cfPWV had significant association with age, hypertension, LDL cholesterol, with Pearson's coefficients of 0.166, 0.074, and 0.030, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: cfPWV and caPWV are independently associated with significant CAD, and cfPWV has significant correlation with age and hypertension. cfPWV and caPWV may be used as a practical tool for predicting the risk of CAD.