Association between brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity and the extent of coronary artery disease

Purposes: We assessed the association between arterial stiffness, as determined by brachial ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV), and the extent of coronary artery disease (CAD) by conventional coronary angiography (CAG) in patients who visited outpatient clinic for angina without any previous history of heart disease. Method: We retrospectively analyzed the data of 583 consecutive patients who had undergone baPWVand elective CAG for suspected CAD between January 2012 and November 2013 in single cardiovascular center. Results: The baPWV was one of the statistically meaningful predictors of significant CAD (diameter of stenosis >50%) in addition to male gender, age, the level of HDL-cholesterol and HbA1c in multivariate analysis. However, baPWV was not the significant predictor of revascularization. When the extent of CAD was classified into following 4 groups; no significant CAD, 1-, 2and 3-vessel disease, there was significant difference of baPWV between the significant and non significant CAD group, but there was no difference of baPWV among the three significant CAD groups, although there was trend toward the positive correlation. Conclusion: Although baPWV was an independent predictor of significant CAD, it was not significantly associated with the extent of CAD.