Clinical usefulness of measuring pulse wave velocity in predicting cerebrovascular disease: evaluation from a cross-Sectional and longitudinal follow-up study.

The present study was designed both as a cross-sectional and longitudinal follow-up study to evaluate the association between pulse wave velocity (PWV) and cardiovascular disease. The subjects in this study included a total 260 patients (134 men and 126 women) ranging from 25 to 91 years (mean, 67.6+/-11.0 years). Carotid to femoral PWV was measured in all patients. The subsequent development of a cerebrovascular or coronary event was defined as a cardiovascular event. The longitudinal follow-up study was conducted with the occurrence of a cardiovascular event as the endpoint. The patients were classified into two groups: an L group with a PWV of less than 10 m/sec and an H group with a PWV of 10 m/sec or higher. Cross-sectional study at baseline: The H group patients were significantly older than the L group patients. The prevalence of hypertension, cardiovascular disease, ischemic heart disease, and cerebrovascular disease were significantly higher in the H group. Systolic blood pressure and serum uric acid were significantly higher in the H group than in the L group. However, there were no significant differences between the two groups with respect to other risk factors. Multivariate analysis using the prevalence of cardiovascular disease as the dependent variable showed "age" and "H group" to be independent variables. When the prevalence of ischemic heart disease or cerebrovascular disease was used as dependent variable, only "age" was an independent variable. Longitudinal follow-up study: The prevalence of cardiovascular event and cerebrovascular event were significantly higher in the H group than in the L group. The prevalence of coronary event in the H group tended to be higher than in the L group, but the difference was not statistically significant. Multivariate analysis using the cardiovascular event rate or coronary event rate as the dependent variable showed only "age" to be an independent variable. When the cerebrovascular event rate was used as the dependent variable, "uric acid" and "H group" were independent variables. The results of this study suggest a higher rate of cerebrovascular disease in patients with high PWV.