Moderated Poster session I

Purpose: The stiffening of aorta and other central arteries is a potential risk factor forincreased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The purpose of this study was toinvestigate the potential clinical application of tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) formotion measurement of the aortic wall in healthy and hypertensive adults.Methods: We examined 31 hypertensive without a history of coronary artery disease(negative echo-stress test) and 31 age- and sex-matched healthy adults. Arterialpressure was measured with a mercury sphygmomanometer before echocardiographywas performed. Pulse wave velocity (PWV) was measured as a standard parameter ofarterial stiffness by oscillometric pulse wave analysis system (TensioMed Arteriograph,Hungary). Aortic M-mode and TDI parameters were measured 3 cm above the aorticvalve. Aortic distensibility and aortic stiffness index (SI) were calculated using acceptedformulae. Maximum velocity of the first and second systolic wall expansion peaks (S,S1,cm/sec), acceleration time (AT, msec), maximum velocity of early (E, cm/sec) andlate (L, cm/sec) diastolic retraction velocity peaks of the ascending aorta and wallpeak systolic strain (ps-e, %) were determined (EchoPAC, version 7.0, GE Ultrasound).Results: Observational variability was low. In hypertensive patients wall motion waveformshowed lacking L, mixed S and S1 peaks, and blunted S compared with controls.S, E and ps-e were significantly lower in hypertensive than in healthy subjects.Reduced PWV and increased SI indicated increased aortic stiffness in both male andfemale hypertensive subjects. Age, diastolic blood pressure and sex were significantindependent factors modulating S, while diastolic blood pressure and age were significantindependent factors modulating E. PWV decreased with increasing age or systolicblood pressure. Duration of hypertension correlated with SI (r¼0.57, p,0.005), distensibility(r¼20.54, p,0.005) and S velocity (r¼20.62, p,0.001). There was a negativecorrelation between aortic stiffness and S velocity (r¼20.51, p,0.005). Multiple stepwiselinear regression analysis in the hypertension group revealed that aortic S velocity(b¼0.35, p¼0.006), ps-e (b¼0.38, p¼0.007) and duration of hypertension (b¼20.51,p¼0.001) were the main predictors of aortic distensibility (overall R2 ¼ 0.53).Conclusions: Our data show that TDI measurement of ascending aortic wall motionprovides qualitative and quantitative wall motion features differentiating hypertensivefrom healthy adults and reflecting aortic compliance changes related to age and sex