Skip to main content
. 2019 Apr 9;6:41. doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2019.00041

Table 2.

Summary of recent studies showing the association between pulse wave velocity and cerebral artery atherosclerosis.

Source Number of patients Population Mean age (years) Design PWV Summary of findings
Zhai et al. (50) 953 Community population 56 Cross-sectional baPWV Increased baPWV was associated with most of imaging markers of SVD, including dilated PVS in white matter, larger WMH volume, and marginally associated with strictly lobar CMB
Tabata et al. (54) 149 Coronary artery disease 71 Cross-sectional baPWV A multivariate analysis showed that baPWV were predictors of lacunar infarcts and CBM
Kim et al. (52) 1,282 Acute ischemic stroke or TIA 68 Cross-sectional baPWV On multivariate analysis, an increase in baPWV was associated with chronic lacunes, WMH, deep CMB, acute SVD, combined SVD score >1, and combined SVD score > 2
Rosano et al. (57) 273 Community population 83 Longitudinal cfPWV Higher cfPWV in 1997-1998 was associated with greater WMH volume in 2006-2008 within the left superior longitudinal fasciculus
King et al. (59) 1,270 Community population 51 Cross-sectional aPWV An increase in aortic PWV was related to an increase in subsequent WMH volume
Poels et al. (56) 1,460 Community population 58 Cross-sectional cfPWV Higher cfPWV was associated with larger white matter lesion volume but not with lacunar infarcts or microbleeds
Kim et al. (51) 801 Acute ischemic stroke 64 Cross-sectional baPWV Increased baPWV was associated with the presence of atherosclerosis (≥50% stenosis) in the intracranial cerebral artery, but not with atherosclerosis in the extracranial cerebral artery
Zhang et al. (63) 270 Hypertensive 61 Cross-sectional cfPWV cfPWV was independently associated with stenosis or calcification of intracranial artery
Kim et al. (53) 120 Lacunar infarction 64 Cross-sectional baPWV Patients with higher baPWV were more likely to have multiple lacunar infarcts and more severe white matter lesions
van Elderen et al. (60) 86 Type 1 diabetes 47 Cross-sectional aPWV Aortic PWV was independently associated with cerebral WMHs but not with cerebral microbleeds or lacunar infarcts
Ochi et al. (49) 443 Apparently healthy population 67 Cross-sectional baPWV OR of a high baPWV, defined as ≥1,500 cm/s, for the presence of CBM was 6.05 even after correction for confounding parameters, including age and hypertension
Brandts et al. (58) 50 Hypertensive 49 Cross-sectional aPWV Aortic PWV was statistically significantly associated with lacunar brain infarcts (OR = 1.8, P = 0.04), independent of age, sex, and hypertension duration, but not with WMH
Park et al. (66) 67 Acute ischemic stroke 65 Cross-sectional baPWV baPWV was significantly correlated with cerebral arterial calcification (r = 0.524, P < 0.001)
De Silva et al. (64) 268 Acute ischemic stroke 62 Cross-sectional cfPWV cfPWV was significantly higher in patients with significant stenosis of intracranial artery than those without
Choi et al. (67) 223 Stroke 66 Cross-sectional baPWV Multiple regression analysis revealed that the baPWV was not independently associated with increased risk of stroke, or the severity of WMH or CMB
Henskens et al. (55) 167 General population 52 Cross-sectional cfPWV A higher cfPWV was significantly associated with a greater volume of WMH and the presence of lacunar infarcts but not with CBM

PWV, pulse wave velocity; baPWV, brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity; SVD, small vessel disease; PVS, perivascular space, WMH, white matter hyperintensity; CBMs, cerebral microbleed; TIA, transient ischemic attack; cfPWV: carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity; aPWV, aortic pulse wave velocity; OR, odds ratio.