Pulse wave velocity predicts cardiovascular mortality: findings from the Hawaii-Los Angeles-Hiroshima study

Arterial stiffness measurements, generally from pulse wave velocity (PWV), are widely used with little knowledge of their relationship to long-term cardiovascular mortality in general populations.

We studied a cohort of 492 Japanese-Americans living in Hawaii (mean age: 63.7 +/-8.8 years) to assess the relationship between PWV and cardiovascular disease mortality and all-cause mortality. During the 10-year follow-up, 43 patients died (14 from cardiovascular events). The cohort was divided into 2 groups by the cut-off value of PWV (9.9 m/s) represented in the receiver operating characteristic curve. The risk ratio for PWV values >9.9 m/s to all-cause mortality was 1.28 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.14-1.42], and adjusted for other risk factors this ratio was 1.42 (95% CI: 0.96-2.11). The corresponding risk ratios for cardiovascular mortality was 4.46 (95% CI: 1.61-12.32) and 4.24 (95% CI: 1.39-12.96), respectively.

The present study demonstrated that an increased PWV value is associated with future cardiovascular disease death in Japanese-Americans living in Hawaii.