Arterial bed stiffness in patients with different cardiovascular risk factors

Aim. To investigate the specific features of changes in the arterial wall stiffness (AWS) parameters obtained by sphygmomanometry in patients with different risk factors (RFs) for cardiovascular events (CVEs). Subjects and methods. A total of 208 mining enterprise workers who had cardiovascular RFs, such as hypertension, abdominal obesity, and smoking, were examined. A comparison group consisted of 75 workers of this enterprise who had no these RFs. AWS was examined using a VaSera VS-1500 (Fukuda Denshi, Japan) to determine CAVI, ABI, UT, %MAP, Al, tb, and tba. Results. The group of patients with a combination of RFs versus the comparison group showed a statistically significant prevalence of virtually all sphygmomanometric indices characterizing AWS, which is suggestive of a less favorable long-term prognosis in this category of patients. Conclusion. The patients having abnormal AWS parameters should be included in a group at risk for cardiovascular diseases and CVEs and their existing RFs be further assessed in detail for a preventive purpose. It is appropriate to incorporate volumetric sphygmomanometry in screening examination programs.