Vascular abnormality includes two forms, arteriosclerosis (ARS) and atherosclerosis (ATS), which coexist in patients with cardiovascular (CV) diseases. However, whether their combination may lead to a worsening status in those patients remains unclear. We therefore aimed to investigate the association of ARS and/or ATS with hypertensive target organ damage (TOD).
From June 2014 to August 2015, a total of 1,599 community-dwelling elderly subjects (aged >65 years) from northern Shanghai were recruited. Vascular measurements, such as carotid–femoral pulse wave velocity (cf-PWV), ankle–brachial index (ABI) and carotid plaque, were conducted on each participant, and ARS was defined as cf-PWV >12 m/s, while ATS was defined as participants who have carotid plaque or ABI <0.9. Within the framework of comprehensive CV examinations, CV risk factors were assessed, and asymptomatic TOD was evaluated by measuring participants’ left ventricular mass index (LVMI), peak transmitral pulsed Doppler velocity/early diastolic tissue Doppler velocity (E/Ea), urinary albumin–creatinine rate (UACR) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR).
Although LVMI, E/Ea and eGFR were significantly different among subjects with or without ARS and/or ATS ( P<0.02), in full adjustment model, only E/Ea showed the independent and significant difference ( P=0.023). Moreover, E/Ea was significantly different between participants with ARS or ATS and those without ARS or ATS ( P=0.045), while there was no significant difference between participants with ARS and ATS and those without ARS or ATS ( P=0.28). Similar results were obtained in the multivariate logistic regression of left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD). With similar adjustment, LVDD was significantly associated with ATS ( P=0.01) but not with ARS ( P=0.99).