Correlation between brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity and carotid artery plaque formation in middle-aged and elderly patients with hypertension

Objective To explore the relationship between brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity(BaPWV) change and carotid artery plaque formation in middle-aged and elderly patients with essential hypertension(EH). Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in 409 patients who were admitted in Hypertension Department in our hospital from January to September 2013. Their age ranged from 35 to 75 years, with mean aged(53.2±15.0) years. Parallel carotid artery ultrasound and BaPWV examination were performed in all patients. According to whether carotid plaques were present, patients were divided into two groups: carotid plaque group and control group. And carotid plaque group was sub-grouped into normal BaPWV group(BaPWV<1 400cm/s) and increased BaPWV group(BaPWV≥1 400 cm/s) according to BaPWV levels. The detection rate of carotid plaque was compared between normal BaPWV group and increased BaPWV group. The correlation between BaPWV and carotid plaques was analyzed by multivariate logistic regression analysis. Results Compared with the control group, carotid plaque group showed the prevalence of carotid plaques was increased along with the increases of age(t=11.0, P=11.0), systolic blood pressure(t=3.87, P=3.87), diastolic blood pressure(t=3.70, P=0.00), pulse pressure(t=6.13, P=6.13), total cholesterol levels(t=2.57, P=0.01). The detection rate of carotid plaque was higher in increased BaPWV group than in normal BaPWV group 〔62.6%(159/254) vs. 43.2%(67/155), χ2=14.61, P=0.00〕. After adjusting for age, blood pressure and other cardiovascular risk factors, the multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that increased BaPWV was an independent risk factor for carotid plaques(OR=2.06, P=0.05), and age, smoking, systolic pressure, diastolic pressure, pulse pressure, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglyceride levels were positively correlated with carotid plaques. Conclusions BaPWV is one of the independent impact factors for carotid plaques, which plays an important role in early diagnosis and screening for subclinical vascular lesions. Key words: Hypertension; Pulse; Carotid Stenosis