Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Oct 1;42(10):1777-1784.
doi: 10.1097/HJH.0000000000003804. Epub 2024 Jun 24.

Aortic stiffness: an age-related prognostic marker?

Claudia Torino  1   2   3 , Zuolin Lu  1 , Martijn J Tilly  1 , M Kamran Ikram  1 , Maryam Kavousi  1 , Francesco Mattace-Raso  1   2
Affiliations

Aortic stiffness: an age-related prognostic marker?

Claudia Torino et al. J Hypertens. .

Abstract

Aortic stiffness, a consequence of vascular aging, is an independent predictor of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. However, the impact of age and sex on its predictive performance remains unclear. We have included 6046 individuals from the population-based Rotterdam study. Survival analyses were performed to investigate the impact of age and sex on the link between aortic stiffness and outcomes, including coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, cardiovascular disease (CVD), cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. The added predictive value of aortic stiffness across age categories and by sex was assessed by using explained variation, Harrell's C index and Integrated Discrimination Improvement (IDI). Aortic stiffness was independently associated with all outcomes [hazard ratio (95% confidence interval; CI): 1.16 (1.04-1.22) for CHD, 1.09 (1.00-1.19) for stroke, 1.11 (1.05-1.18) for CVD, 1.14 (1.05-1.23) for cardiovascular mortality, 1.08 (1.03-1.13) for all-cause mortality]. The strength of the association between aortic stiffness and stroke, cardiovascular and all-cause mortality decreased significantly by advancing age. The variance of the outcome (R2) explained by aortic stiffness alone was noticeable in individuals younger than 60 years and negligible in the other age categories. The association of aortic stiffness and CHD was stronger in women than in men. Similarly, the difference in R2 between women and men was greater for CHD than for the other considered outcomes. Our findings suggest that the gain in explained variation caused by aortic stiffness for CVD and mortality might be limited to individuals younger than 60 years.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Verwoert GC, Franco OH, Hoeks APG, Reneman RS, Hofman A, V Duijn CM, et al. Arterial stiffness and hypertension in a large population of untreated individuals: the Rotterdam Study. J Hypertens 2014; 32:1606–1612.
    1. Mattace-Raso FUS, Van Der Cammen TJM, Knetsch AM, Van Den Meiracker AH, Schalekamp MADH, Hofman A, Witteman JC. Arterial stiffness as the candidate underlying mechanism for postural blood pressure changes and orthostatic hypotension in older adults: the Rotterdam Study. J Hypertens 2006; 24:339–344.
    1. Van Popele NM, Mattace-Raso FUS, Vliegenthart R, Grobbee DE, Asmar R, Van Der Kuip DAM, et al. Aortic stiffness is associated with atherosclerosis of the coronary arteries in older adults: the Rotterdam Study. J Hypertens 2006; 24:2371–2376.
    1. Van Popele NM, Grobbee DE, Bots ML, Asmar R, Topouchian J, Reneman RS, et al. Association between arterial stiffness and atherosclerosis: the Rotterdam study. Stroke 2001; 32:454–460.
    1. Selwaness M, Van Den Bouwhuijsen Q, Mattace-Raso FUS, Verwoert GC, Hofman A, Franco OH, et al. Arterial stiffness is associated with carotid intraplaque hemorrhage in the general population: the Rotterdam study. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol 2014; 34:927–932.

LinkOut - more resources