Clinical factors associated with brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity in patients on maintenance hemodialysis

Pulse wave velocity (PWV) is a main parameter for arterial stiffness. In patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD), PWV is known to be associated with increased mortality. But factors related to the increased PWV in ESRD patients are not well defined. In addition, the carotid-femoral PWV (cfPWV) measurement, which traditionally has been used to evaluate arterial stiffness, has low reproducibility. Recently, brachial-ankle PWV (baPWV) measurement, which can be performed more easily than cfPWV measurement, has become available as a means of measuring PWV. The aim of this study is to investigate the clinical factors associated with increased baPWV in ESRD patients. BaPWV was examined for 65 ESRD patients on maintenance hemodialysis during the period between the 7(th) to the 11(th) of February in 2005 using VP-1000. The clinical factors included age, sex, smoking history, blood pressure, diabetes, body mass index, interdialytic weight gain, duration of dialysis, lipid profile, uric acid, albumin, creatinine, C-reactive protein, calcium, phosphate, intact parathyroid hormone, and hematocrit were analyzed regarding associations (or to determine associations) with baPWV. The median age was 53.8±12.0, 31 males and 34 females. BaPWV was 18.9±5.2 m/s and there was no significant difference between gender (18.1±4.4 m/s vs 19.4±5.9 m/s, p=NS). In multiple regression models, age, predialysis systolic blood pressure, and diabetes were independent variables. In conclusion, age, systolic blood pressure, and diabetes were correlated with baPWV in ESRD patients. Thus baPWV measured by simple, noninvasive methods may become available for screening high risk groups in ESRD patients, although further longitudinal studies are necessary.