Lifelong Heterogeneous Contribution of Cardiovascular Risk Factors to Slow and Fast Progression of Arterial Stiffness

Although some cardiovascular risk factors (CVRFs) are known to be associated with increased arterial stiffness, increased arterial stiffness does not mediate the cardiovascular risk associated with all CVRFs. Here, based on long-term repeated-measurement data, we examined the association of the lifelong status of each CVRF with the rate of progression of arterial stiffness.

We utilized the data from annual health checkups with the brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity measurements over a 16-year period in middle-aged Japanese occupational cohort.

Totally, 29 090 brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity data were obtained during the follow-up of 3763 subjects ranging in age from around 30 to 70 years. Smoking, heavy alcohol intake, hypertension, diabetes, hypertriglyceridemia, and hyperuricemia were independently associated with the fast progression of arterial stiffness. Also, lower values in nondisease range in blood pressure, glycosylated hemoglobin A1c, triglyceride, and uric acid were independently associated with the slow progression of arterial stiffness. For body mass index and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, no clear associations with the progression of arterial stiffness were observed.

The present prospective study provided more robust epidemiological evidence for the heterogeneity of the significance of contribution of lifelong status of each CVRF to the slow and fast rate of progression of arterial stiffness. These findings suggest the important need to examine, in further studies, the effects of global early interventions to control the levels of the culprit CVRFs, even from middle age, not only to prevent a fast progression of the arterial stiffness but also to maintain a relatively slow progression of arterial stiffness.