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(Circulation. 2004;110:432-437.)
© 2004 American Heart Association, Inc.

Original Articles

Relationship Between Arterial Stiffness and Subclinical Aortic Atherosclerosis

David M. Herrington, MD, MHS; W. Virgil Brown, MD; Lori Mosca, MD, PhD; Warren Davis, MD; Barry Eggleston, MS; W. Gregory Hundley, MD; Jeffrey Raines, PhD

From the Department of Internal Medicine/Cardiology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC.

Correspondence to David M. Herrington, MD, MHS, Department of Internal Medicine/Cardiology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Medical Center Blvd, Winston-Salem, NC 27157. E-mail dherring{at}wfubmc.edu

Received September 29, 2003; de novo received January 20, 2004; revision received April 22, 2004; accepted April 22, 2004.

Background— Noninvasive measures of arterial compliance may be useful for the detection of subclinical atherosclerosis.

Methods and Results— Measures of calf and thigh arterial compliance (MaxV50) were recorded in 267 subjects who also underwent MRI of the distal aorta to quantify distal aorta atherosclerosis. The average of calf and thigh MaxV50 was strongly predictive of extent of aortic atherosclerosis and risk of being in the top quartile of aortic atherosclerosis after adjustment for the Framingham Coronary Risk Score (FCRS) or the combination of the FCRS and C-reactive protein (P<0.0001). The areas under the receiver operating curves predicting the top quartile of gender-specific aortic atherosclerosis were 0.57, 0.60, and 0.75 for models containing the FCRS, the FCRS and C-reactive protein, and the FCRS, C-reactive protein, and the average of calf and thigh MaxV50.

Conclusions— Lower-extremity arterial compliance may identify subjects with extensive subclinical atherosclerosis. Further studies examining the potential value of arterial stiffness as a screening tool to guide initiation of more aggressive preventive interventions are warranted.

Key Words: atherosclerosis • aorta • magnetic resonance imaging

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