Low muscle strength and increased arterial stiffness go hand in hand

Maximilian König,Nikolaus Buchmann,Ute Seeland,Elisabeth Steinhagen-Thiessen,Dominik Spira,Ilja Demuth

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-81084-z

Maximilian König, Nikolaus Buchmann + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-81084-z

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Abstract

Low handgrip strength and increased arterial stiffness are both associated with poor health outcomes, but evidence on the relationship between handgrip strength and arterial stiffness is limited. In this cross-sectional analysis of combined baseline datasets from the LipidCardio and Berlin Aging Study II cohorts we aimed to examine whether handgrip strength (HGS) is associated with arterial stiffness. 1511 participants with a median age of 68.56 (IQR 63.13–73.08) years were included. Arterial stiffness was assessed by aortal pulse wave velocity (PWV) with the Mobil-O-Graph device. Handgrip strength was assessed with a handheld dynamometer.The mean HGS was 39.05 ± 9.07 kg in men and 26.20 ± 7.47 kg in women. According to multivariable linear regression analysis per 5 kg decrease in handgrip strength there was a mean increase in PWV of 0.08 m/s after adjustment for the confounders age, sex, coronary artery disease, systolic blood pressure, body mass index, cohort, and smoking. Thus, there was evidence that low handgrip strength and increased arterial stiffness go hand in hand. Arterial stiffness can possibly create the missing link between low handgrip strength and increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Causality and direction of causality remain to be determined.

Highlights

Low handgrip strength and increased arterial stiffness are both associated with poor health outcomes, but evidence on the relationship between handgrip strength and arterial stiffness is limited
Low handgrip strength is associated with a whole range of poor health outcomes, including incident cardiovascular disease (CVD), and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), and frailty, impaired quality of life, longer hospital stays, disability, cognitive impairment, decrease in renal function, respiratory and cancer outcomes, and premature mortality, respectively[4,5,6,7,8,9,10]
According to linear regression analysis, per 5 kg decrease in handgrip strength pulse wave velocity (PWV) increased on average by 0.30 m/s (ß = − 0.30, 95% CI − 0.35 to − 0.25, p < 0.001, Table 2), or by about 1 m/s per tertile decrease of handgrip strength, which is evident from Table 1

Summary

Introduction

Low handgrip strength and increased arterial stiffness are both associated with poor health outcomes, but evidence on the relationship between handgrip strength and arterial stiffness is limited. According to multivariable linear regression analysis per 5 kg decrease in handgrip strength there was a mean increase in PWV of 0.08 m/s after adjustment for the confounders age, sex, coronary artery disease, systolic blood pressure, body mass index, cohort, and smoking. Low handgrip strength is associated with a whole range of poor health outcomes, including incident CVD, and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), and frailty, impaired quality of life, longer hospital stays, disability, cognitive impairment, decrease in renal function, respiratory and cancer outcomes, and premature mortality, respectively[4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. It would be conceivable that microvascular dysfunction plays a major role in skeletal muscular dysfunction (reduced strength and loss of skeletal muscle mass, altered metabolism, e.g. development of insulin resistance)[16,17]

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