Association between increased arterial stiffness measured by brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity and cardiovascular events in patients with Takayasu's arteritis

Objective. This study aims to investigate the association between arterial stiffness measured by brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) and cardiovascular events (CVEs) in patients with Takayasu's arteritis (TAK). Methods. A total of 240 TAK patients, who underwent baPWV measurement, were included in the study. The primary outcome was CVEs, which was defined as presently or previously diagnosed with myocardial infarction, unstable angina, congestive heart failure, aortic aneurysm/dissection, cerebral infarction/transient ischaemic attack (TIA), or cerebral haemorrhage. Results. A total of 74 (30.8%) patients with CVEs were included in the present cohort. Compared with the patients without CVEs, those with CVEs had a higher prevalence of hyperlipidaemia (HL), smoking history, active stage, angiographic type V, renal dysfunction (RDF), higher baPWV and high sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) level (all, p<0.05). The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that HL (OR: 2.465, 95%CI: 1.308-4.648, p=0.005), smoking history (OR: 4.764, 95%CI: 1.623-13.985, p=0.004), baPWV (OR: 1.132, 95%CI: 1.063-1.204, p<0.001), and hs-CRP (OR: 1.111, 95%CI: 1.040-1.188, p=0.002) were independently associated with the presence of CVEs. The multiple linear regression analysis revealed that age (beta=0.100, p=0.002), mean blood pressure (beta=0.071, p<0.001), angiographic type V (beta=3.681, p<0.001) and RDF (beta=1.800, p=0.048) were independently correlated with baPWV. Conclusion. Increased baPWV was independently associated with CVEs in patients with TAK. Age, angiographic type V, mean blood pressure and RDF were the strongest determinants for baPWV in TAK. BaPWV may be a potential maker to predict CVEs in patients with TAK.