Abstract
This work was carried out in a Uruguayan (South American) population to characterize aging-associated physiological arterial changes. Parameters markers of subclinical atherosclerosis and that associate age-related changes were evaluated in healthy people. A conservative approach was used and people with nonphysiological and pathological conditions were excluded. Then, we excluded subjects with (a) cardiovascular (CV) symptoms, (b) CV disease, (c) diabetes mellitus or renal failure, and (d) traditional CV risk factors (other than age and gender). Subjects (n = 388) were submitted to non-invasive vascular studies (gold-standard techniques), to evaluate (1) common (CCA), internal, and external carotid plaque prevalence, (2) CCA intima-media thickness and diameter, (3) CCA stiffness (percentual pulsatility, compliance, distensibility, and stiffness index), (4) aortic stiffness (carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity), and (5) peripheral and central pressure wave-derived parameters. Age groups: ≤20, 21–30, 31–40, 41–50, 51–60, 61–70, and 71–80 years old. Age-related structural and functional vascular parameters profiles were obtained and analyzed considering data from other populations. The work has the strength of being the first, in Latin America, that uses an integrative approach to characterize vascular aging-related changes. Data could be used to define vascular aging and abnormal or disease-related changes.
Highlights
Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality allover the world
An early identification of subjects at increased risk of developing atherosclerosis would be important since prevention strategies that could have the highest impact in cardiovascular outcomes at the population level would be those instituted early
It is noteworthy that given the ethnic diversity in the International Journal of Hypertension atherosclerosis profile, the dissimilar risk associations and the different levels of genetic-environmental interactions in different populations, studies performed in a given population could not be directly applied to another
Summary
Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality allover the world. Several methods have been proposed to stratify the cardiovascular risk, taking into account data mainly derived from European and/or North American populations. Those methods are mostly based on the identification of factors associated with the etiology and development of atherosclerosis (traditional cardiovascular risk factors). It is noteworthy that cardiovascular risk approaches based on the assessment of conventional risk factors could not be enough to determine the cardiovascular risk of an individual [1, 2] In this context, it has been stated that the early detection of atherosclerosis and the individual risk stratification by means of the evaluation of vascular parameters could provide a major opportunity to prevent cardiovascular events [1, 2]
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