Brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity with a custom device

The brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) is one of the most widely used arterial stiffness variables for assessing vascular risk. The abiPWV is a device that calculates various PWVs and the blood pressure ankle-brachial index (ABI). The device can also determine baPWV. The aim of this study was to calculate the baPWV with abiPWV, validate it with a reference device (VaSera) and study its clinical usefulness.

We studied 113 patients (mean age, 53 ± 12 years), 59 (52%) of whom were women, and 10 (8.8%) of whom had a previous cardiovascular event. The participants were classified according to cardiovascular risk factors (CRFs) into group I (none), group II (1 or 2 CRFs) and group III (3 or more CRFs). The patients with a previous cardiovascular event were included in group III. All participants had their baPWV measured with abiPWV and VaSera.

The baPWV correlation between the 2 devices was r = 0.93 (p < .001), and the percentage error calculated with the Bland-Altman analysis was 4.5%. The baPWV measured with abiPWV (in m/s) was as follows: group I, 10.5 ± 1.6; group II, 13.8 ± 2.9 (p < .001 when compared with group I); and group III, 14.1 ± 2.7 (p < .001 when compared with group I). There were no differences between groups II and III. The results with VaSera were comparable to those of abiPWV.

Measuring baPWV with the abiPWV is safe and has a similar clinical utility to that of VaSera. Incorporating this function into the options of abiPWV makes it a complete device for assessing arterial stiffness.