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Brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity and prognosis in patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Hypertension Research volume 44, pages 1175–1185 (2021)Cite this article

Abstract

Arterial stiffness has been suggested as an independent cardiovascular risk factor. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to quantify the association between brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) and prognosis in atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) patients. The PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases were searched for cohort studies examining the association of high baPWV with prognosis in ASCVD patients. High baPWV was defined by the cutoffs provided by each study. The outcomes of interest were cardiovascular events, cardiovascular mortality, and all-cause mortality. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were combined using the random-effects model with inverse variance weighting. We identified 15 studies that were eligible for inclusion in the meta-analysis. The overall HRs and 95% CIs of cardiovascular events, cardiovascular mortality, and all-cause mortality for high baPWV were 2.55 (1.61–4.03), 2.66 (1.88–3.76), and 1.77 (1.09–2.87), respectively. The association between baPWV and cardiovascular events remained significant, irrespective of determination methods for cutoffs of baPWV, classification of ASCVD, outcome definitions, Newcastle-Ottawa Scale score and average age, independent of age and hypertension. Significantly higher HRs were observed in the subgroups of >3 years follow-up duration (p for interaction: 0.04), cutoff points by ROC curves (p for interaction: 0.04) and an average age of <65 years (p for interaction: 0.01). A 1 standard deviation increase in baPWV was associated with a 1.41-fold (1.24–1.60) increase in the risk of cardiovascular events. High baPWV is independently associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events, cardiovascular mortality, and all-cause mortality in ASCVD patients.

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Funding

This study was supported by the CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (CIFMS), 2017-I2M-2-002.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Special Care Center, Fuwai Hospital, National Clinical Research Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China

    Tiantian Sang, Naqiang Lv, Aimin Dang, Nan Cheng & Wei Zhang

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  1. Tiantian Sang
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Correspondence to Aimin Dang.

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Sang, T., Lv, N., Dang, A. et al. Brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity and prognosis in patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Hypertens Res 44, 1175–1185 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41440-021-00678-2

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