Reference values in white Europeans for the arterial pulse wave recorded by means of the SphygmoCor device.

Measurement of blood pressure together with applanation tonometry at the radial artery allows the reproducible assessment of various indexes of arterial stiffness, including the peripheral (PPp) and central pulse pressures (PPc) and the peripheral (Alp) and central augmentation indexes (Alc). We defined preliminary diagnostic thresholds, using the distributional characteristics of these hemodynamic measurements in a reference population. We randomly recruited 870 subjects from 3 European populations.

Epistatic interaction between alpha- and gamma-adducin influences peripheral and central pulse pressures in white Europeans.

Background: Adducin is a membrane skeleton protein consisting of alpha- and beta- or alpha- and gamma-subunits. Mutations in alpha- and beta-adducin are associated with hypertension. In the European Project on Genes in Hypertension, we investigated whether polymorphisms in the genes encoding alpha-adducin (Gly460Trp), beta-adducin (C1797T) and gamma-adducin (A386G), alone or in combination, affected pulse pressure (PP), an index of vascular stiffness.

Large artery stiffness and pulse wave reflection: results of a population-based study.

Objective: To assess the determination of large artery stiffness and pulse wave reflection in a population sample.

Methods: A 1% random population sample aged 25-65 years was selected in nine districts of the Czech Republic for a survey off cardiovascular risk factors (Czech post-MONICA). Of 891 individual screened in the Pilsen centre in the year 2000, arterial properties were studied in 291 (143 males and 148 females) using the Sphygmocor device.

Association of peripheral and central arterial wave reflections with the CYP11B2 -344C allele and sodium excretion.

Objective: Angiotensin II and aldosterone, generated by the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) and aldosterone synthase (CYP11B2), respectively, not only regulate sodium and water homeostasis, but also influence vascular remodeling in response to high blood pressure. In the European Project on Genes in Hypertension (EPOGH), we therefore investigated whether the ACE I/D and CYP11B2 C-344T polymorphisms influence early arterial wave reflections, a measure of vascular stiffness.

Methods: We measured the peripheral and central augmentation index of systolic blood pressure by applanation tonometry at the level of the radial artery in 622 subjects (160 families and 64 unrelated individuals) randomly recruited from three European populations, whose average urinary sodium excretion ranged from 196 to 245 mmol/day.