Central versus peripheral arterial stiffness in association with coronary, cerebral and peripheral arterial disease

Abstract Background Although stiffness of central arteries is more preferentially associated with coronary artery disease (CAD) than that of peripheral arteries, less is known for cerebrovascular disease (CVD) and peripheral artery disease (PAD). We measured pulse wave velocity (PWV) in four arterial segments, and examined the relative changes in the four regional PWVs in patients with CAD, CVD or PAD. Methods The 2798 subjects were selected from 3300 consecutive participants of our non-invasive vascular lab. 342 subjects had one or more pre-existing atherosclerotic diseases including 128 CAD ( N  = 128), CVD ( N  = 195) and PAD ( N  = 83). PWVs were simultaneously measured using an automated pulse wave analyzer (model BP-203RPE, Colin) in the heart–femoral (hf, aorta), heart–carotid (hc), heart–brachial (hb), and femoral–ankle (fa) segments. Results As compared to the subjects without atheroscletoric disease, those with CAD, CVD, or PAD showed higher levels of PWV in the four arterial segments, particularly in hfPWV. The relative increase in hfPWV remained significant after adjustment for age, sex, hypertension, pulse rate, smoking, diabetes mellistus, dyslipidemia, and chronic kidney disease. Conclusion This study indicates that the preferential increase in central arterial stiffness is found not only in CAD but CVD and PAD as well.