Background: The ability to reflect age and sex specific alterations of the vascular system is an essential criterion of an arterial stiffness marker such as the cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI). So far, there have been few systematic examinations of CAVI in Caucasian populations. Therefore, the association of CAVI with age and sex was studied within the second follow up of the Swiss Cohort Study on Air Pollution and Lung and Heart Diseases in Adults (SAPALDIA 3).

Methods: CAVI was measured using a VaseraVS-1500 vascular screening system (Fukuda Denshi, Tokyo, Japan) in supine position after 15 min of rest. The analysis involved t-tests, correlations and regression models and included 2971 persons aged 50–80 years (1488 males (M), 1483 females (F), 63.4±7.9 yrs) with an ankle brachial index equal to or greater than 0.9.

Results: In both sexes, CAVI increased significantly with age (M: r=0.65, F: r=0.63; each p<0.001) with a mean increment of 0.9 units per decade. CAVI values were higher in males than in females in every age group, statistically significant from 60 years upwards (mean CAVI±SD 50–59yrs M: 7.88±0.89, F: 7.81±0.82, p=0.19; 60–69yrs M: 8.84±0.94, F: 8.59±0.91, p<0.001; 70–80yrs M: 9.80±1.04, F: 9.47±0.97, p<0.001). The sex differences in mean CAVI values increased significantly with age (p=0.005).

Conclusion: Our results are consistent with existing findings in Asian study populations and suggest that CAVI represents an age and sex-sensitive measure of atherosclerotic risk also among Caucasians. Further analyses of CAVI will additionally include cardiovascular risk factors such as physical inactivity.