gms | German Medical Science

28. Wissenschaftlicher Kongress der Deutschen Hochdruckliga

24. bis 27.11.2004, Hannover

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Transient myocardial ischemia is linked to increased pulse wave velocity, but not to augmentation index and stiffness index

Stumme Myokardischämie ist verbunden mit erhöhter Pulswellen-Geschwindigkeit, aber nicht mit Augmentations- und Stiffness-Index

Meeting Abstract (Hypertonie 2004)

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  • presenting/speaker J. Baulmann - Medizinische Universitäts-Poliklinik (Bonn, D)
  • R. Homsi - Medizinische Universitäts-Poliklinik (Bonn, D)
  • S. Ün - Medizinische Universitäts-Poliklinik (Bonn, D)
  • S. Rickert - Medizinische Universitäts-Poliklinik (Bonn, D)
  • S. Düsing - Medizinische Universitäts-Poliklinik (Bonn, D)
  • H. Vetter - Medizinische Universitäts-Poliklinik (Bonn, D)
  • T. Mengden - Medizinische Universitäts-Poliklinik (Bonn, D)

Hypertonie 2004. 28. Wissenschaftlicher Kongress der Deutschen Hochdruckliga. Hannover, 24.-27.11.2004. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2005. Doc04hochP119

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/hoch2004/04hoch119.shtml

Published: August 10, 2005

© 2005 Baulmann et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

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Introduction: We proved the hypothesis if arterial stiffness is altered in patients with transient myocardial ischemia, bearing a very high cardiovascular risk. Pulse wave velocity (PWV), augmentation index (AIx) and stiffness index (SI) are parameters of arterial stiffness and powerful indicators for cardiovascular risk. The clinical significance of different parameters of arterial stiffness in patients with transient myocardial ischemia is not known.

Design: PWV (SphygmoCor, AtCor Medical), aortic AIx (SphygmoCor) and SI (PulseTrace, MicroMedical) were assessed in 74 hypertensive patients. Transient myocardial ischemia was detected using a ST-triggered 24-h ambulatory blood pressure monitoring-device (Cardiotens, Meditech).

Results: ST-segment depressions were recorded in 30 of 74 patients. PWV was significantly higher in patients with transient myocardial ischemia (10.6 versus 9.5 m/s, p=0.036), when adjusted for age, mean arterial pressure, body height and gender, the significance level is 0.042. AIx and SI were not significantly altered. PWV, but not AIx or SI, was significantly correlated to pulse pressure (r2=0.39, p<0.01).

Conclusion: In patients with silent myocardial ischemia, PWV is increased, but no other parameters of PWA, showing that PWV is a powerful indicator of increased cardiovascular risk. Though AIx is known to be associated to several cardiovascular diseases, it is not significant concerning the presence of silent myocardial ischemia. Our results suggest that we must learn more about the clinical significance of the different parameters of arterial stiffness.