Prevalence of arterial stiffness and the risk of myocardial diastolic dysfunction in women

Seeland U, Brecht A, Nauman A T, et al. Prevalence of arterial stiffness and the risk of myocardial diastolic dysfunction in women. Bioscience Reports. 2016;36(5): e00400.The present study determines the prevalence of vascular dysfunction and arterial stiffness (ASt) in a female urban population by measuring the brachial augmentation index (AIx) and aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV). The study tests the hypothesis that the measurement of AIx and PWV is useful in addition to that of traditional cardiovascular risk factors when assessing the risk for left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD). This cross-sectional study recruited 965 women aged 25–75 years from 12 districts of Berlin. The ASt indices, brachial AIx, aortic PWV and the central blood pressure were measured by an oscillometric method. A randomly selected subgroup (n=343) was examined by echocardiography. Trans-mitral inflow E/A ratio and diastolic mitral annulus velocity (é) were assessed. Questionnaires, medical history and blood sampling were used for the evaluation of individual risk factors. Normal vascular function was found in 55% of the women included. The prevalence of women with pathological AIx only (AIx ⩾ −10%, PWV normal) was 21.5%, whereas 17.9% were affected by increased AIx and PWV (AIx ⩾ −10%, PWV ⩾9.7 m/s), and 6% with only pathological PWV values. The prevalence of LVDD was 31.7%. LVDD was significantly associated with pathological PWV ⩾ 9.7 m/s [OR: 1.27, 95%CI: 1.02–1.57], age [OR: 4.17, 95%CI: 2.87–6.07] and a waist circumference >80 cm [OR: 3.61, 95%CI: 1.85–7.04] in multiple regression analysis. The high prevalence of markers for vascular dysfunction and ASt in a general female population and their importance as a mediator of diastolic dysfunction should encourage implementation of aortic PWV measurement to improve cardiovascular-risk assessment in particular to identify subclinical myocardial diastolic dysfunction

Left Atrial Function in Preclinical Diastolic Dysfunction: Two-Dimensional Speckle-Tracking Echocardiography–Derived Results from the BEFRI Trial

Brecht A, Oertelt-Prigione S, Seeland U, et al. Left Atrial Function in Preclinical Diastolic Dysfunction: Two-Dimensional Speckle-Tracking Echocardiography–Derived Results from the BEFRI Trial. Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography. 2016;29(8):750-758

Cardiovascular risk factor distribution and subjective risk estimation in urban women – The BEFRI Study: a randomized cross-sectional study

Oertelt-Prigione S, Seeland U, Kendel F, et al. Cardiovascular risk factor distribution and subjective risk estimation in urban women – The BEFRI Study: a randomized cross-sectional study. BMC Medicine. 2015;13(1): 52

Normative reference data, determinants, and clinical implications of right atrial reservoir function in women assessed by 2D speckle-tracking echocardiography

Brand A, Bathe M, Hübscher A, et al. Normative reference data, determinants, and clinical implications of right atrial reservoir function in women assessed by 2D speckle-tracking echocardiography. Echocardiography. 2018;35(10):1542-1549