Cardio-ankle vascular index and carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity are closely associated with chronological age

Background: Vascular stiffening is part of the ageing process. However, it is not clear which vascular stiffness parameters are closely associated with chronological age. Methods: Fifty-eight participants (38 men), age 69.57 ± 10.46 (mean ± SD, range = 47-90 years) who have had transient ischaemic attack or lacunar stroke within the last 2 weeks, had vascular stiffness parameters, brachial and central blood pressures measured. Cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI) was measured with VaSera VS-1500N® (Fukuda Denshi, Japan); carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) and carotid-radial pulse wave velocity (crPWV) were measured with Complior® (ALAM Medical, France); radial augmentation index (rAIx) and central blood pressure were measured with SphygmoCor® (AtCor, Australia). Results: The mean and standard error of the mean for each parameter (mean ± SEM) was as follows: CAVI=9.77 ± 0.21, cfPWV = 10.61 ± 0.46 m/s, crPWV = 11.05 ± 0.30 m/s, rAIx = 31.34 ± 1.60 %, and central pulse pressure (cPP) = 50.22 ± 1.81 mmHg. In a bivariate analysis, CAVI (r = 0.59, p<0.01) and cfPWV (r = 0.39, p