Arterial stiffness in Czech population measured by VaSera® 1500

The traditional non-invasive method for the early detection of arteriosclerosis is the brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (PWV); however, this method is significantly influenced by blood pressure (BP) changes. Recently, a new non-invasive method for the arterial stiffness assessment was developed - the cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI). This method has been shown to be unaffected by BP variations and thus it could be recommended for wide clinical use, including large population studies. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the CAVI in a sample of Czech adult population. A group of 121 healthy subjects (aged from 20 to >70 years) was examined using the newest type of non-invasive monitoring system VaSera® 1500 (Fukuda Denshi Co., Tokyo, Japan). This control group was then compared with 3 groups of patients with selected lifestyle-related diseases: coronary artery disease (CAD; n = 74), diabetes mellitus (DM; n = 36), and hypertension (HT; n = 58). The statistical analysis showed a significant difference in the CAVI parameter between healthy subjects and patients with coronary artery disease, diabetes, and hypertension; the mean CAVI value in the control group (6.9) was significantly lower compared to the patients with CAD (CAVI = 9.2; P < 0.001 vs. control group), diabetes (CAVI = 8.5; P < 0.001 vs. control group), and hypertension (CAVI = 8.9; P < 0.001 vs. control group). These results demonstrate that CAVI should be considered as an important clinical parameter independent of blood pressure changes, and should be recommended as a valuable indicator of the preventive evaluation of the arteriosclerotic risk in healthy subjects and patients with life-style related diseases.