Increased Arterial Stiffness Measured by Carotid Femoral (Aortic) Pulse Wave Velocity in Patients with Inactive Behçet’s Disease

Abstract

Introduction Behçet’s disease (BD) is a chronic, multisystemic disease characterised by vascular involvement. Acute and chronic inflammatory processes associated with BD may cause endothelial dysfunction, which can then lead to a subsequent increase of arterial stiffness and altered pressure wave reflections. The aim of this study was to evaluate the pulse wave velocity (PWV) measurements in patients with inactive BD and control subjects. Methods We studied 50 patients with inactive BD and 49 healthy control subjects without known cardiovascular disease. Carotid-femoral PWV was determined in all subjects by the same expert research clinician using Complior device (Colson, Paris, France). Results Mean disease duration was 3.23±2.31 years. Patients with BD (mean age 36.04±9.94 years) had significantly higher PWV levels compared to controls (9.57±1.88 vs. 8.47±1.13 m/s; p=0,003). PWV was found to be positively correlated with age, systolic, diastolic, mean blood pressure, waist, and waist/hip ratio. Conclusion In our study we demonstrated that patients with BD exhibit significantly increased arterial stiffness assessed by increased carotid-femoral PWV compared to healthy control subjects.