Nomogram of the relation of brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity with blood pressure

The present study was conducted to make a nomogram of the relation of brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) with blood pressure. In 11,375 subjects (age range: 30 to 79 years) in whom we measured baPWV, multivariate linear regression analysis demonstrated that age, systolic blood pressure, and gender were significant determinants of baPWV. Of them, we selected 5,302 subjects (2,630 men and 2,672 women, age 46 +/- 11 years) with either normal blood pressure or with high blood pressure without other atherosclerotic risk factors. Using data from these subjects, we tried to make an age-derived nomogram and a systolic blood pressure-derived nomogram for in both genders. The regression curve analysis demonstrated significant quadratic curves for both associations. The obtained nomograms were applied to 297subjects with coronary heart disease. Their measured baPWV (1,569 +/- 344 cm/s) was significantly higher than the values calculated from the age-derived nomogram (1,502 +/- 241 cm/s) and the systolic blood pressure-derived nomogram (1,418 +/- 236 cm/s) (p < 0.01). Thus, a nomogram of the relation of baPWV with blood pressure was obtained. The comparison of the measured baPWV with the values calculated from the nomograms may be useful to not to underestimate the real risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases, including the severity of atherosclerotic vascular damage, reflected by measured baPWV in subjects with different blood pressure levels.