Association between Aortic Stiffness and Cerebral Pulsatility is Modestly Influenced by Augmentation Index

DOI

10.2991/artres.k.191212.001How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Central pulse pressure; cerebral pulsatility; augmentation index; glyceryl trinitrate (GTN)

Abstract

Central Pulse Pressure (CPP) and Aortic Pulse Wave Velocity (aPWV) share a positive relationship with cerebral pulsatility and are associated with cerebrovascular disorders including stroke. Our aim was to examine the influence of Augmentation Index (AIx) upon this relationship, first by using a cross sectional design across a wide range of CPP and aPWV in healthy individuals and second, following administration of Glyceryl Trinitrate (GTN) to acutely change AIx. We measured CPP, aPWV, AIx and Middle Cerebral Artery Pulsatility Index (MCAPI) in 99 healthy individuals (54 females). In all individuals, after accounting for the effect of age and gender, MCAPI shared an independent inverse relationship with AIx (β = −0.515, R² = 0.109; p = 0.001), and a positive relationship with CPP (β = 0.570, R² = 0.093; p = 0.003) but not aPWV (p > 0.05). GTN was administered to 25 of these participants (14 females). Following GTN, AIx75 decreased in all participants relative to baseline (12 ± 19 to 5 ± 16%; p = 0.0001). In the 20 min following GTN administration, CPP shared a positive relationship with MCAPI (β = 0.305, R² = 0.042; p = 0.002) while AIx, adjusted for heart rate (AIx75), shared an inverse relationship with MCAPI (β = −0.320, R² = 0.019; p = 0.031). These findings indicate that the positive relationship between CPP and MCAPI may be somewhat modified by AIx. This suggests that an increased AIx may weakly attenuate increases in MCAPI that are associated with aortic stiffening in a healthy population at rest, but also following acute reductions in AIx75 after administration of GTN.

Copyright

© 2019 Association for Research into Arterial Structure and Physiology. Publishing services by Atlantis Press International B.V.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

Download article (PDF)
View full text (HTML)

TY  - JOUR
AU  - James Pearson
AU  - Laura J. Watkeys
AU  - James M. Coulson
AU  - Zachary J. Schlader
AU  - Craig G. Crandall
AU  - John R. Cockcroft
AU  - Carmel M. McEniery
AU  - Barry J. McDonnell
PY  - 2019
DA  - 2019/12/24
TI  - Association between Aortic Stiffness and Cerebral Pulsatility is Modestly Influenced by Augmentation Index
JO  - Artery Research
SP  - 95
EP  - 100
VL  - 25
IS  - 3-4
SN  - 1876-4401
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/artres.k.191212.001
DO  - 10.2991/artres.k.191212.001
ID  - Pearson2019
ER  -