The Emergence of Ambulatory Measurement of Arterial Stiffness and Central Blood Pressure. A Promising Novelty of Clinical Importance or Just Another Marker?

Abstract

Whereas brachial blood pressure (BP) is still considered the gold standard for the estimation of cardiovascular risk in all clinical trials and guidelines, scientific interest is shifting towards central hemodynamics and the scientific community is experiencing a whole new revolution with the emergence of novel cardiovascular markers such as the ambulatory measurement of central BP and arterial stiffness. Central BP has already started to demonstrate its superiority over peripheral BP as a better and more reliable predictor of end-organ damage in cardiovascular diseases. Furthermore, ambulatory measurement of central BP and pulse wave velocity are expected to add much more useful information towards a more integrated assessment of cardiovascular risk and profile. However, more research is required before these novel markers could be incorporated in the everyday practice of BP measurement.