Diabetes-Related Changes in Carotid Wall Properties: Role of Triglycerides.

This study compares the power of the radiofrequency (RF) signal reflected from the media layer (media power) of the common carotid artery (CCA) and the CCA stiffness between individuals with and without type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). It also evaluates the associations of CCA media power with plasma glucose and lipid levels, as well as carotid stiffness. A total of 540 individuals, 115 with and 425 without T2DM (273 males, mean age = 64 ± 8 years) were studied using RF-based tracking of the right CCA.

Prognostic impact of peripheral artery disease-related parameters in patients with acute coronary syndrome.

Background: Lower extremity arterial disease (LEAD) and increased aortic stiffness are associated with higher mortality in patients with chronic coronary syndrome, while their prognostic significance after an acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is less known.

Methods: We analyzed prevalence, clinical phenotypes and association of LEAD - assessed by the ankle-brachial index (ABI) - and increased aortic stiffness - assessed by the aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV) - with all-cause mortality and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in patients admitted with an ACS.

Results: Among 270 patients admitted for ACS (mean age 67 years, 80% males), 41 (15%) had an ABI ≤0.

Association between Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol and Vascular Biomarkers in Primary Prevention.

Several noninvasive vascular biomarkers have been proposed to improve risk stratification for atherothrombotic events. To identify biomarkers suitable for detecting intermediate-risk individuals who might benefit from lipid-lowering treatment in primary prevention, the present study tested the association of plasma LDL-cholesterol with coronary artery calcification (CAC) Agatston score, high carotid and femoral intima-media thickness (IMT), low carotid distensibility and high carotid-femoral pulse-wave velocity in 260 asymptomatic individuals at intermediate cardiovascular risk and without diabetes and lipid-lowering treatment. High or low vascular biomarkers were considered when their value was above the 95th or below the 5th percentile, respectively, of the distribution in the healthy or in the study population.

Corrigendum: Carotid reservoir pressure decrease after prolonged head down tilt bed rest in young healthy subjects is associated with reduction in left ventricular ejection time and diastolic length.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2022.

Comparison between Carotid Distensibility-Based Vascular Age and Risk-Based Vascular Age in Middle-Aged Population Free of Cardiovascular Disease.

The concept of vascular age (VA) was proposed to provide patients with an understandable explanation of cardiovascular (CV) risk and to improve the performance of prediction models. The present study compared risk-based VA derived from Framingham Risk Score (FRS) and Systematic Coronary Risk Estimation (SCORE) models with value-based VA derived from the measurement of the common carotid artery (CCA) distensibility coefficient (DC), and it assessed the impact of DC-based VA on risk reclassification. In 528 middle-aged individuals apparently free of CV disease, DC was measured by radiofrequency-based arterial wall tracking that was previously utilised to establish sex- and age-specific reference values in a healthy population.