An echocardiographic study for assessment the indices of arterial and ventricular stiffness

Abstract

Arterial stiffness represents an important risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. The cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI) has been recently reported as a new index of arterial stiffness, which is less influenced by blood pressure than pulse wave velocity. We investigated the relationship between CAVI and myocardial ischemia as assessed by supine exercise echocardiography (SEE). In order to study the ejection characteristics of the left ventricle (LV) a computer model describing the LV systole in different preloading conditions was developed, allowing the evaluation of the wall stress at end-systole and the end-systolic pressure. Using echocardiographic recordings, we investigated the relationship between the vascular and ventricular stiffness indices. © 2010 International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering.