Association Between Invasively Measured Central Aortic Pressure and Left Ventricular Diastolic Function in Patients Undergoing Coronary Angiography Hack-Lyoung Kim,1 Jae-Bin Seo,1 Woo-Young Chung,1 Sang-Hyun Kim,1 Myung-A Kim,1 and Joo-Hee Zo1

Increased aortic stiffness is a maker of arteriosclerosis and is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.1,2 Aortic stiffness can be measured using clinically relevant noninvasive techniques such as tonometry, magnetic resonance imaging, and echocardiography.1 Left ventricular (LV) diastolic dysfunction is associated with poor clinical outcomes in the general population, as well as in patients with certain cardiac conditions.3–5 Recently, as the prevalence and clinical significance of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction have increased, more attention has been focused on LV diastolic function.6,7 Several studies have reported a close interaction between aortic stiffness and LV diastolic function. They have suggested that increased pulse pressure (PP) and LV afterload by stiffened aorta may contribute to the development of LV diastolic dysfunction.8–15 The central aortic pressure wave is formed by an interaction between the heart and arterial system: the result of the summation of a forward propagation wave generated by the left ventricle and a backward wave reflected from the peripheral arteries.16 Therefore, analysis of aortic pressure waveforms, such as amplitude and timing of reflected pressure waves, provides useful information on central arterial hemodynamics, including aortic stiffness or compliance. Although cardiac catheterization is considered the gold standard to obtain central aortic pressure wave, it requires invasive techniques. For this reason, there is limited information on a hemodynamic interaction between the left ventricle and aorta using invasive pressure monitoring. The aim of this study was to investigate whether parameters of invasively measured central aortic pressure waves are related with those of LV diastolic function and to confirm the interaction between LV diastolic function and central aortic stiffness.