Patterns of Conduit Artery Shear Stress Across the Menopause Transition

Abstract

IntroductionDisturbed patterns of conduit artery shear, characterized by greater oscillatory (bi‐directional) and retrograde (backward) shear are associated with endothelial dysfunction. Moreover, declines in endothelial function can take place rapidly across the menopause transition, placing women at heightened risk for development of cardiovascular disease.MethodsConduit artery shear patterns were measured in women at varying stages of the menopause transition. Resting brachial artery and common femoral artery mean blood velocities and diameters were measured via Doppler ultrasound in early perimenopausal, late perimenopausal, and early postmenopausal women.ResultsBrachial artery oscillatory shear was significantly higher in early postmenopausal women (n=15, 0.17 ± 0.08 a.u.) than both early (n=12, 0.08 ± 0.05 a.u., p=0.002) and late (n=8, 0.08 ± 0.04 a.u., p= 0.007) perimenopausal women, and retrograde shear was significantly higher in early postmenopausal vs. early perimenopausal women (−9.74 ± 6.48 s−1 vs. −4.81 ± 3.05 s−1, p= 0.03). Femoral artery retrograde and oscillatory shear were greater, respectively, in early postmenopausal women (n=15, −6.78 ± 2.91 s−1; 0.19 ± 0.08 a.u.) than early perimenopausal women (n=14, −4.07 ± 2.21 s−1, p=0.03; 0.11 ± 0.08 a.u., p=0.01). Further, Pearson correlation analyses revealed significant associations between follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and both retrograde and oscillatory shear, respectively, in the brachial (R=−0.37, p=0.04; R=0.5, p=0.005) and common femoral artery (R=−0.4, p=0.03; R=0.45, p=0.01).DiscussionOur findings suggest that increases to conduit artery retrograde and oscillatory shear take place during the menopause transition and these increases are associated with FSH, a marker of reproductive age.Support or Funding InformationSocial Sciences Research Institute and Center on Population Health and Aging at Penn State, M01 RR‐10732 (General Clinical Research Center), K12 HD055882This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.