066 Correlates of digital Pulse Amplitude Tonometry (PAT) in middle-aged men and postmenopausal women

Abstract

Endothelial dysfunction is recognized as an important step in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease and in this regard, the assessment of endothelial function is considered an accurate marker of whole-body vascular health status. Among the non-invasive techniques available to evaluate endothelial function, digital pulse amplitude tonometry (PAT) has gained popularity in recent years considering it is an easy to use and reproducible technique. The aim of our study was to investigate the differences in the digital PAT hyperemic response in middle-aged men and postmenopausal women. We measured digital PAT (EndoPAT2000, Itamar Medical, Caesarea, Israel) in a group of 55 men (mean ±SD: 54.7 ± 7.7 years; 29.2 ± 4.3 kg/m2) and 92 postmenopausal women (59.2 ± 4.8 years; 27.5 ± 3.9 kg/m2). Anthropometric measures as well as a fasting plasma lipoprotein-lipid profile were obtained from all participants. We found that the digital reactive hyperemic index (RHI) was significantly lower in men compared to postmenopausal women (2.03 ± 0.59 vs. 2.29 ± 0.69 respectively, P = 0.0194). We also noted that the RHI was negatively correlated with body weight (r = −0.18, P = 0.0253), waist circumference (r = −0.17, P = 0.0388) as well as with the cholesterol/HDL ratio (r = −0.23, P = 0.0061) and positively with circulating HDL-cholesterol levels (r = 0.24, P = 0.0030). Finally, we conducted multiple regression analyses in order to quantify the independent contributions of anthropometric and metabolic variables to the variance of RHI values and found that the latter was best predicted by circulating HDL-cholesterol levels (R2 = 5.9%, P < 0.003). In summary, we found that middle-aged men have a deteriorated digital PAT hyperemic response indicative of an impaired endothelial function compared to postmenopausal women. Furthermore, abdominal obesity and low HDL-cholesterol concentrations were both associated with endothelial dysfunction and HDL-cholesterol was identified as the best predictor of the RHI, although its independent contribution remained of limited extent. Further studies are needed to better understand the role of low HDL-cholesterol levels in endothelial dysfunction as well as to identify other metabolic and nutritional determinants of the RHI in overweight men and women.McCormick Canada Endothelial dysfunction is recognized as an important step in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease and in this regard, the assessment of endothelial function is considered an accurate marker of whole-body vascular health status. Among the non-invasive techniques available to evaluate endothelial function, digital pulse amplitude tonometry (PAT) has gained popularity in recent years considering it is an easy to use and reproducible technique. The aim of our study was to investigate the differences in the digital PAT hyperemic response in middle-aged men and postmenopausal women. We measured digital PAT (EndoPAT2000, Itamar Medical, Caesarea, Israel) in a group of 55 men (mean ±SD: 54.7 ± 7.7 years; 29.2 ± 4.3 kg/m2) and 92 postmenopausal women (59.2 ± 4.8 years; 27.5 ± 3.9 kg/m2). Anthropometric measures as well as a fasting plasma lipoprotein-lipid profile were obtained from all participants. We found that the digital reactive hyperemic index (RHI) was significantly lower in men compared to postmenopausal women (2.03 ± 0.59 vs. 2.29 ± 0.69 respectively, P = 0.0194). We also noted that the RHI was negatively correlated with body weight (r = −0.18, P = 0.0253), waist circumference (r = −0.17, P = 0.0388) as well as with the cholesterol/HDL ratio (r = −0.23, P = 0.0061) and positively with circulating HDL-cholesterol levels (r = 0.24, P = 0.0030). Finally, we conducted multiple regression analyses in order to quantify the independent contributions of anthropometric and metabolic variables to the variance of RHI values and found that the latter was best predicted by circulating HDL-cholesterol levels (R2 = 5.9%, P < 0.003). In summary, we found that middle-aged men have a deteriorated digital PAT hyperemic response indicative of an impaired endothelial function compared to postmenopausal women. Furthermore, abdominal obesity and low HDL-cholesterol concentrations were both associated with endothelial dysfunction and HDL-cholesterol was identified as the best predictor of the RHI, although its independent contribution remained of limited extent. Further studies are needed to better understand the role of low HDL-cholesterol levels in endothelial dysfunction as well as to identify other metabolic and nutritional determinants of the RHI in overweight men and women. McCormick Canada