Establishing Reference Values for Pulse Wave Velocity in Young People: The Youth Vascular Consortium

Aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV) is an indicator of vascular aging and has proven to be effective in adult cardiovascular risk assessment. To use it in young people to identify those who may be at increased cardiovascular disease risk, reference values need to be determined. The Youth Vascular Consortium is a large, international database which was established to investigate vascular aging in youth. Using data from the Youth Vascular Consortium, this study aimed to develop reference values for aortic PWV in healthy young people.

This is a retrospective, multicenter study. Data on demographics, anthropometric, biochemical, and vascular aging measures from participants aged 1 year to 40 years were harmonized. Generalized additive models were used to derive percentile curves for PWV and predicted percentiles at years of age were reported by sex, continent, and device.

Data from 19 930 participants (mean age=17 years, 51% women, 71% European), classified as healthy based on blood pressure, body mass index, serum glucose, and cholesterol levels, were included to construct the reference values. Six devices were used to assess aortic PWV (29% SphygmoCor). Device-specific percentile curves for aortic PWV were constructed, and an increasing trend was identified for both sexes with age.

This study provided reference values for aortic PWV assessed with 6 devices for healthy young people by age and sex. These percentiles may be applied clinically to identify youth with impaired vascular aging and, thus, those who may be at risk of developing overt cardiovascular disease in the future.