Beat-to-Beat Blood Pressure and Two-dimensional (axial and radial) Motion of the Carotid Artery Wall: Physiological Evaluation of Arterial Stiffness

Chenchu Xu,Heye Zhang,Xiuquan Du,Zhifan Gao,Wanqing Wu,Guotao Liu,Shuo Li,Xin Liu,Huahua Xiong,Yanping Zhang

doi:10.1038/srep42254

Abstract

The physiological relationship between local arterial displacement and blood pressure (BP) plays an integral role in assess- ment of the mechanical properties of arteries. In this study, we used more advanced methods to obtain reliable continuous BP and the displacement of the common carotid artery (CCA) simultaneously. We propose a novel evaluation method for arterial stiffness that relies on determining the physiological relationship between the axial and radial displacements of the CCA wall and beat-to-beat BP. Patients (total of 138) were divided into groups according to the following three criteria: essential hyper- tension (EH) and normotension, male and female, elderly and younger. The Pearson correlation test and canonical correlation analysis showed that the CCA indices were significantly correlated with BP indices (r = 0:787; p < 0:05). The slope of the CCA displacement/pressure curve showed a progressive reduction with increasing age and EH disease occurrence (EH: 0.496 vs. normotension: 0.822; age <= 60:0.585 vs. age > 60:0.783). Our method provides an explicit reference value and relationship for the manner in which the CCA wall responds to changes in BP. Short-term and continuous BP were significantly correlated with CCA displacement and exhibited a close inverse relationship with each subject’s BP and EH, age, and systolic blood pressure.

Highlights

Atherosclerosis has been considered the main cause of morbidity and mortality in relation to cardiovascular diseases
The most important finding was a strong canonical correlation between the beat-to-beat blood pressure (BP) and carotid artery wall displacement, indicating that the two-dimensional motion of the carotid artery wall has a strong influence on the beat-to-beat blood pressure variability (BPV). This result is consistent with the findings presented in a previous publication, namely, that a basic physiological feature, the variability in the BP level, is a significant marker of the risk related to cardiovascular complications[32,40,41]
Our trial suggests that there is a highly significant correlation between carotid artery wall movement and BPV, whether participants are younger or older, male or female, or diagnosed with essential hypertension or not, which is consistent with our above result

Summary

Introduction

Atherosclerosis has been considered the main cause of morbidity and mortality in relation to cardiovascular diseases. Substantial evidence has demonstrated that arterial stiffness undergoes a progressive change with aging, yielding values that are markedly changed in cases of hypertension and a variety of other diseases[2,3,4]. Such changes are known to give rise to adverse clinical consequences. Increased stiffness of the large central arteries, as estimated by the common carotid artery (CCA) wall displacement, is a risk factor for atherosclerosis[5,6,7]. Figure 3. 2-D displacement of the left and right carotid artery and pressure signals and their relationship with EH and NEH throughout the cardiac cycle

Objectives

Discussion

Conclusion