An easy and intuitive web interface for the assessment of measurements of carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity and local arterial stiffness relative to the reference values database

Abstract

Objective: The use of different devices and methods still hampers the widespread clinical use of the reference values for arterial stiffness. The aim of this work was therefore to create a web-based application that allows easy assessment - for different methodological approaches - of a given measured value of arterial stiffness, with the application providing the percentile reference associated with that specific value. Methods: Reference values of carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cf-PWV) (11,092 individuals; age range: 15–97 years, 49.8% men) and local carotid (22,708 individuals; age range 15–99 years; 54% men) and femoral (5,069 individuals; age range: 15–87 years; 49.5% men) arterial stiffness were obtained from The Reference Values for Arterial Stiffness' Collaboration 2010 and the database of The Reference Values for Arterial Stiffness' Collaboration. Data from healthy subpopulations were used to establish equations for percentiles of cf-PWV and sex-specific percentiles of carotid and femoral distensibility coefficient (DC) across age. Using these established equations, an application was created (in JavaScript) to provide the percentile reference value from routine parameters obtained in clinical practice. Results: The tool can be found at: http://bit.do/referencevalues. The user selects the parameter to be determined (or standardized): carotid DC, femoral DC or cf-PWV. Subsequently, a number of inputs are required to calculate the selected parameter, the percentile and, when relevant, additional information. The tool also allows conversion of cf-PWV following different methods. Conclusions: An easy and intuitive interface was created to assess a given measurement of arterial stiffness relative to know reference values.