Assessment of carotid pulse wave velocity (carPWV) in patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis

Abstract

IntroductionAnkylosing spondylitis (AS) is an inflammatory rheumatic disease associated with accelerated atherosclerosis and increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.ObjectivesTo assess the local arterial stiffness in carotid artery in subjects with AS compared with controls evaluated by carotid artery pulse wave velocity (carPWV).MethodsUltrasound examinations were conducted with a Mylab One color Doppler ultrasound diagnostic system (Esaote, Firenze, Italy), the right common carotid artery (RCCA) was scanned, using a 5–12 MHz vascular probe with built-in quality arterial stiffness (QAS) which calculate carPWV.ResultsForty-seven male subjects (20 with Ankylosing Spondylitis and 27 controls) aged between 20 and 75 (mean age 41.17 ± 11) were evaluated. AS patients have not Hypertension, history of cardiovascular risk factors or smoking). Higher carPWV was observed in patients with AS (6.27 ± 0.72 vs 5.56 ± 1.02 m/s; p = 0.0123) compared with controls, respectively.ConclusionsAS subjects showed higher carPWV compared with controls, this novel assessment for local arterial stiffness could be useful in the future to calculate cardiovascular risk, more studies should be developed with this method in this pathology in our population.Figure 1AS, ankylosing Spondylitis: cPWY, carotid artery pulse wave velocity; SD: standard deviation. Continuous variables are shown as median with analysis by t-rest.