Arterial stiffness in metabolic syndrome.

Unlabelled: Arterial stiffness is increasingly recognized as an important determinant of cardiovascular risk and may be directly involved in the process of atherosclerosis. As atherosclerosis leads to increased arterial resistance and decrease the flow propagation speed within the arterial lumen, a similar decrease in aortic flow propagation with increased downstream resistance is detected, so aortic flow propagation velocity AVP was evaluated in many studies as a new parameter of aortic stiffness.

Aim: To measure arterial stiffness using the new parameter AVP and compare it to flow mediated dilatation FMD as a parameter of endothelial dysfunction in patients with metabolic syndrome MS.