The association between pulse wave velocity and metabolic syndrome in Korean

The objective of this study was to compare aortic (the common carotid to femoral artery) PWV, arm (the brachial to radial artery) PWV, and leg (the femoral to dorsalis pedis artery) PWV in people with or without component of the metabolic syndrome. We analyzed 3345 Korean subjects (1907 men, age 44.6 ± 8.5, 1438 women, age 43.3 ± 8.9). Unpaired t-test was used to compare mean values of various metabolic parameters between subjects with and without Metabolic Syndrome (MetS), and one-way analysis of variance was used to compare these variables among groups satisfying different numbers of the components of MetS. In addition, we compared of Pearson correlation coefficient between age and PWV (arotic PWV, arm PWV and leg PWV) levels of according to whether the subject had components of the metabolic syndrome or not. The present study shows that leg PWV level was found to be significantly associated with the features of the metabolic syndrome in Korean men and women. And, we confirmed that blood pressure is significantly associated with the PWV values at three locations. And, this study shows that Pearson correlation coefficient of arotic PWV and leg PWV were about 10% higher than without diabetes according to age. Further studies need to be performed to evaluate the optimal cut-off value of PWV for diabetes, hypertension, and MetS in Korean.Implications for RehabilitationPulse wave velocity (PWV) reflects arterial stiffness, and it is a marker of both the severity of vascular damage and the prognosis of cardiovascular diseases in selected subjects, such as patients with hypertension or with abnormal glucose metabolism.Metabolic syndrome might be involved in the pathogenesis of PWV.Leg (the femoral to dorsalis pedis artery) PWV level was found to be significantly associated with the features of the metabolic syndrome in Korean.