Introduction: Pulse Wave Velocity (PWV) is commonly used as a marker of arterial stiffness. Aim: To evaluate the relationship between PWV and cardiovascular risk factors and assess the applicability of PWV measurement in screening for cardiovascular risk. Methods: Pulse wave, anthropometric and laboratory measurements were obtained from 341 subjects (171 females, 170 males, aged 58±13 years old). The Framingham general Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) score predictive of the 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease was used for stratification of subjects into high, moderate and low CVD risk groups. Results: Mean pulse wave velocity was higher in patients with high (10.1±2.2, ANOVA p<0.001) and moderate CVD risk (9.8±2.3, ANOVA p<0.01) versus the low risk group (8.6±1.9). Multivariate regression analysis showed positive association of pulse wave velocity with age (beta=0.04, p<0.001), mean systolic blood pressure (beta=0.02, p<0.01) and presence of hypertension (beta=0.7, p<0.05) (r squared=0.1913). Pulse wave velocity was not significantly associated with the Framingham general CVD risk score. Logistic regression analysis was performed and areas under the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve of the association of PWV with high risk or moderate stratifications were estimated. The area under the curve was 0.613 (CI: 0.53, 0.69) in the high risk stratification and 0.5064 (CI: 0.42, 0.59) in the moderate stratification. Pulse wave velocity was not shown to influence high and moderate general CVD risk stratifications. Conclusions: PWV absolute levels are significantly higher in patients with predicted high and moderate CVD risk. However, PWV does not independently improve the accuracy of discriminating high from low risk patients.