A new index to evaluate arterial ageing independently of arterial blood pressure: pOpscore®

Aim. - Pulse wave velocity does not correlate to age in the upper limb but in the aorta and lower limb. We studied the link between ageing and pulse wave transit time (PWtt) indexes at the toe and finger. Patients and methods. - Measurements were performed in 300 patients in occupational medicine and primary care after 5 minutes supine rest using the device studied (pOpmetre (R), Axelife SAS, France). It measures transit time between R-ECG and finger or toe pulse signal (ttf or ttt respectively). We define as follows three indexes: difference between transit times: Dtf = ttt - ttf; pulse wave velocity PWVft = k*subjects height/Dtf (m/s); and the pOpscore (R) as the ratio of toe PWV/fingerPWV. Results. - Of the 300 tested patients, 147 were analysed using univariate correlation: age (P <10(-4)), SBP (P< 10(-4)), DBP (P < 0.02) and BMI (P <0.04) correlated to Dtf, PWVtf and pOpscore (R). Using stepwise regression analysis with Age, BMI, SBP, DBP, MBP: Dtf was dependent with age (P <10(-4)) and SBP (P <0.01); PWVtf with age (P <0.0001), SBP (P <0.01) and DBP (P <0.05); pOpscore (R) was dependent only to age (P <10(-4)). Conclusion. - In this study, in contrast with the other vascular indexes studied dependent to age and blood pressure, pOpscore (R) was dependent only to ageing. pOpmetre (R) is a promising technique for routine determination of arterial stiffness and pOpscore (R) appears to be appropriate to study the structural vascular ageing in outpatient. (C) 2012 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.