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- Title
Arterial stiffness and ventricular stiffness: a couple of diseases or a coupling disease? A review from the cardiologists point of view.
- Authors
Francesco Antonini-Canterin; Scipione Carerj; Vitantonio Di Bello; Giovanni Di Salvo; Salvatore La Carrubba; Olga Vriz; Daniela Pavan; Alberto Balbarini; Gian Luigi Nicolosi; On behalf of the Research Group of the Italian Society of Cardiovascular Echography (SIEC)
- Abstract
The assessment of arterial stiffness, a common feature of ageing, exacerbated by many common disorders such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus, or renal diseases, has become an attractive tool for identifying structural and functional abnormalities of the arteries in the preclinical stages of the atherosclerotic disease. Arterial stiffness has been recognized as an important pathophysiological determinant of systolic blood pressure and pulse pressure increases and therefore the cause of cardiovascular complications, demonstrating also an independent predictive value for cardiovascular events. Although there are many techniques and indices currently available, their large clinical application is limited by a lack of standardization, with important difficulties when one try effectively to measure, quantify, and compare. Moreover, information on the ‘heart-vessel coupling disease’, in which combined stiffness of both heart and arteries interact to limit cardiovascular performance and its possible implications in different clinical conditions, is still not well known. We overviewed main methods and indices used to estimate arterial stiffness and aimed to provide an insight into the knowledge of the ventricular–arterial coupling from the cardiologists point of view.
- Subjects
ARTERIAL diseases; CARDIOLOGISTS; HYPERTENSION; HEART blood-vessel abnormalities; HEART abnormality complications; ATHEROSCLEROSIS; PATHOLOGICAL physiology; BLOOD pressure
- Publication
European Journal of Echocardiography, 2009, Vol 10, Issue 1, p36
- ISSN
1525-2167
- Publication type
Article