A new tool for the evaluation of stiffness vascular parameters in Clinical Practice: eTRACKING

In recent years, great attention has been paid to the role of arterial stiffness in the development of cardiovascular diseases. Indeed, the assessment of arterial stiffness is increasingly used in the clinical assessment of patients. Changes in the stiffness of the large arteries, such as the aorta and its major branches, largely account for the changes in SBP (Systolic Blood Pressure), DBP (Diastolic Blood Pressure) and PP (Pulse Pressure) that occur from 50 years of age onward. A large number of publications have reported the various pathophysiological conditions associated with increased arterial stiffness parameters. Apart from the dominant effect of aging , they include physiological conditions {i.e. menopausal status , lack of physical activity}; genetic background such as a parental history of hypertension , diabetes or myocardial infarction ; traditional CV risk factors ; CV diseases such as coronary heart disease (13) , congestive heart failure , fatal stroke ; primarily non-CV diseases (16-20) (i.e. moderate chronic kidney disease, systemic vasculitis, systemic lupus erythematosus, etc.). The contribution of these different factors to arterial stiffness parameters have been evaluated in different studies.The major parameters to be taken into account are: age and blood pressure and, to a lesser extent, gender and the other CV risk factors. Until today it has not been possible to evaluate stiffness parameters by means of vascular machines, which required specific competence and organization. eTRACKING, developed by Aloka, overcomes these limitations because the soft-ware is implemented into the normal echo-equipment and the parameters are obtained by a normal vascular transducer with a frequency of 10 Mhz. The technique is not time-consuming and the parameters can be obtained in a routine examination of the neck vessels. In our clinical experience we have utilized eTRACKING to evaluate two different aspects: