Pulse wave velocity

Pulse wave velocity (PWV) reflects arterial stiffness. PWV correlates with other markers reflecting the severity of atherosclerosis such as the findings of ultrasound examination of carotid artery. In addition, several studies demonstrated that increased PWV is a predictor of future cardiovascular events in patients with either hypertension or diabetes mellitus. Thus, PWV is thought to be applicable as a marker relating with the severity of atherosclerosis and/or predicting future atherosclerotic cardiovascular events. Age and blood pressure is a major determinant of PWV, and the influence of these factors should be taken into account to use PWV as a marker of cardiovascular risk. On the other hand, while anti-hypertensive medication or statins improve PWV, it has not been fully evaluated whether these improvement reflect the improvement of prognosis. Therefore, the significance of PWV as a surrogate marker for the treatment of atherosclerotic cardiovascular risk has not been fully established. Carotid-femoral PWV is used as a conventional method. Recently, more simple method: brachial-ankle PWV is available in clinical settings. This method is simple fully enough to apply in a large population. However, brachial-ankle PWV includes peripheral component of artery in its assessment of arterial stiffness, and it has not been fully concluded that brachial-ankle PWV has a similar potential as a marker using the management of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease as carotid-femoral PWV. Further study is proposal to evaluate the clinical significance of brachial-ankle PWC as a tool using the management of cardiovascular disease.