An international team has created the first comprehensive reference measurements for blood vessel stiffness in healthy young people, a step that could give pediatric and adolescent clinics a multidecade head start in spotting and treating cardiovascular disease risk.
The analysis in Hypertension assembled pulse wave velocity test results from 19,930 participants ages 1 to 40 who met strict “healthy” criteria for blood pressure, body mass index, fasting glucose and cholesterol. The tests measure blood vessel stiffness, i.e., how flexible or inflexible their blood vessels are, because excessive stiffness increases the risk of heart attack or stroke.
“This gives us a tool we did not have,” said Vikas Dharnidharka, the Henry Rutgers Professor and Chair of Pediatrics at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, who is a co-author of the analysis and contributed data to the project. “There’s more work to do, but it’s the first step in guiding treatment in ways that will save lives.”
Pulse wave velocity measures how quickly pressure waves from the heart traverse the blood vessels throughout the body. Stiffer arteries transmit and reflect back the waves faster, when the heart is not ready for its next contraction. Blood vessel walls become stiffer with age. In adults, elevated pulse wave velocity scores predict future heart attacks and strokes independently of other known risks such as high blood pressure or poor lipid panel results. They also indicate which patients need treatments that reduce artery stiffness to protect them from that added risk. To read the full story.