Thoracic Aortic Calcification and Carotid Atherosclerosis Prediction by Brachial-Ankle Pulse Wave Velocity

By investigating whether brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV), thoracic aortic calcification (TAC) and carotid atherosclerosis (CA) are predicted. We evaluate the abilities of baPWV to predict TAC and CA. 272 subjects without cardiovascular disease underwent baPWV, carotid ultrasound, chest computed tomography scan, clinical measurements, and lifestyle questionnaire. The 'main determinants of baPWV, TAC, and CA were analyzed by binary logistic regression. The cut-off values of baPWV predicting TAC and CA were obtained by the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve. 185 subject data was used for the analysis. Arterial stiffness, CA and TAC were present as
$54.1\%(\mathrm{n}=100), 77.8\%(\mathrm{n}=144)$
, and
$49.2\% (\mathrm{n}=91)$
, respectively. Arterial stiffness was present in 63.2% (92/144) of the subjects with CA and not present in 80.5% (33/41) of the subjects without CA (P<0.001). Similarly, arterial stiffness was present in 78% (71 of 91) of the subjects with TAC and not present in 69.2% (65 of 94) of the subjects without TAC (P<0.001). Age and hypertension were the main factors. The cut-off values of baPWV to predict CA and TAC were respectively 1605 cm/s (95%CI: 0.715-0.863,
$\text{AUC}=0.789,\mathrm{P} < 0.001)$
and 1675 cm/s (95%CI: 0.703-0.841,
$\text{AUC}=0.772,\ \mathrm{P} < 0.001)$
. The results suggested that CA and TAC were predicted by baPWV with the values of 1605 cm/s and 1675cm/s. It is important to use baPWV screening CA and TAC to prevent cardiovascular events in areas with limited medical resources.