Early vascular ageing common among patient with congenital heart disease

Patients with congenital heart disease suffer from high rates of early vascular ageing (EVA), a recent study has found. Blood pressure (BP), pulse pressure, and blood sugar are among the risk factors for early vascular ageing.

Seventy-two patients with congenital heart disease participated in the study whose brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) was measured. Early vascular ageing was defined as baPWV above the 95th percentile of values for age and sex.

The mean baPWV was 1,280.6±329.9 cm/s. EVA was detected in 10 patients, yielding a prevalence rate of 15.6 percent. As expected, baPWV was significantly elevated in those with vs without EVA (1,846.5±389.3 vs 1,175±179.0 cm/s; p<0.0001).

Single regression analysis revealed that age (r, 0.68; p<0.0001), systolic (r, 0.74; p<0.0001) and diastolic (r, 0.62; p<0.0001) BP, pulse pressure (r, 0.50; p<0.0001), blood sugar (r, 0.34; p=0.0067), and glycated haemoglobin (r, 0.30; p=0.024) were all significant and positive correlates of baPWV.

Multiple regression analysis confirmed the independent effect of systolic BP (t, 7.827; p<0.0001) and age (t, 6.272; p<0.0001).

The researchers then performed logistic regression analysis to find potential indicators for EVA and found that systolic BP increased its risk by over 10 percent (OR, 1.128, 95 percent CI, 1.049–1.214; p=0.001).

A similar effect was reported for diastolic BP (OR, 1.114, 95 percent CI, 1.039–1.194; p=0.002), pulse pressure (OR, 1.140, 95 percent CI, 1.051–1.236; p=0.002), blood sugar (OR, 1.066, 95 percent CI, 1.018–1.117; p=0.007), glycated haemoglobin (OR, 8.088, 95 percent CI, 1.288–50.782; p=0.026), and age (OR, 1.088, 95 percent CI, 1.031–1.148; p=0.002).