Increased arterial stiffness in stable and severe asthma.

Background: Systemic inflammation is related to disease progression in asthma. The brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) is a marker for early atherosclerotic changes. The aim of this study is to evaluate the baPWV levels in patients with stable and severe asthma.

Methods: We examined baPWV, high sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP), lung function parameters, and arterial blood gas analysis in patients with asthma and control subjects. 85 stable asthma patients and 85 severe asthmatics were investigated. 85 control subjects matched for age, gender, body mass index (BMI) and smoking status were recruited.

Results: The patients with severe asthma had increased baPWV and CRP compared with the patients with stable asthma and control subjects. Furthermore, baPWV was elevated in stable asthma compared with control subjects. There was a negative correlation between baPWV and forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1), after adjusting age, gender, BMI and smoking status (r = -0.414, p < 0.001). Similarly, baPWV was negatively correlated with FEV1/forced vital capacity (FVC) (r = -0.431, p < 0.001). Although there was no correlation between CRP and baPWV in patients with stable asthma, CRP was positively correlated with baPWV in patients with severe asthma (r = 0.229, p = 0.039).

Conclusions: baPWV tends to increase as pathogenic condition aggravated in asthma. In addition, elevated baPWV correlates with impaired lung function. Our observation suggests that baPWV is useful for early detection of subclinical atherosclerosis in asthma.