Vascular disturbances have been associated with increased cardiovascular risk. Measure of arterial stiffness is a useful and noninvasive method of identifying potential cardiovascular risk in humans.1 Evidence suggests that increased arterial stiffness can independently predict cardiovascular abnormalities in both healthy adults2, 3, 4 and individuals presenting with clinical or metabolic disturbances.5, 6, 7 Early detection of arterial stiffness is a valuable method of predicting cardiovascular risk and it could be used to screen patients8 in clinical practice. Although arterial stiffness has been suggested to be an independent marker in identifying cardiovascular risk, further detailed investigations could be carried out to complement and confirm the findings. Based on the evidence from the literature, including our own pilot study,9 subsequent studies in this area should certainly take into consideration several confounding factors when analyzing the results. According to the literature, several factors might affect arterial stiffness, such as age, body weight, smoking, alcohol consumption, hypertension, cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations, glucose levels, hypothyroidism, and heart failure.8 Therefore, arterial stiffness as a single method may not provide a definitive diagnostic to clinicians with regards to endothelial inflammation but could be suitable as an early marker for cardiovascular risk. Hence, we would recommend that the practitioner test other inflammatory markers if early diagnosis of arterial stiffness has indicated an individual to be at risk for developing cardiovascular disease.
References
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