Arterial stiffness calculations show equivalent results for CVD events

Several methods of local arterial stiffness calculation produce generally the same results, reports a study. This suggests that the variety of these calculations do not lead to inconsistent findings.

A total of 6,814 adults without clinical cardiovascular disease (CVD) at enrolment participated in the multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis. Those with CVD surveillance through 2018 and carotid ultrasound (n=5,873) or aorta magnetic resonance imaging (n=3,175) at the baseline exam (2000‒2002) were eligible for inclusion.

The authors analysed 21 different calculations of local arterial stiffness. They also performed cross-sectional and longitudinal statistical analyses, as well as Cox hazard modeling, to explore the associations with CVD events (ie, myocardial infarction, resuscitated cardiac arrest stroke, adjudicated angina, and cardiovascular death).

Associations of carotid artery stiffness calculations with each other were mixed (r, 0.56‒0.99), and aortic stiffness measures were similar (r, 0.66‒0.99).

For CVD events, the hazard ratio (HR) per standard deviation change were comparable for all carotid stiffness calculations with HRs ranging from 1.00‒1.10 (equivalence p<0.001).

For the aorta, aortic distensibility coefficient showed a more robust relation with CVD events (HR, 1.18, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.02‒1.37) compared to aorta Peterson’s elastic modulus (HR, 0.98, 95 percent CI, 0.89‒1.07) and aorta pulse wave velocity (HR, 1.00, 95 percent CI, 0.90‒1.11).

Moreover, equivalent HRs were noted between all other aortic stiffness calculations (p<0.01).