Relationship between cardio-ankle vascular index and homocysteine in hypertension subjects with hyperhomocysteinemia

ABSTRACT

Background: Arteriosclerosis evaluated by arterial stiffness is the basic pathophysiological change during the development of hypertension. Cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI) is an index of arterial stiffness. Hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) is an independent risk factor for vascular diseases. However, there was little research about the relationship between CAVI and homocysteine (Hcy) in hypertension subjects with HHcy. Methods: A total of 330 subjects (M/F 133/197) from Vascular Medicine of Peking University Shougang Hospital were divided into four groups: control group (group 1, normotensive with normal Hcy, n = 149), hypertension group (group 2, n = 113), HHcy group (group 3, n = 30), and hypertension with HHcy group (group 4, n = 38). CAVI was measured by VS-1000 apparatus. Results: Our results showed that CAVI was significantly higher in group 4 than in group 1 and group 2 (8.41 ± 1.08 vs. 7.79 ± 1.14; 8.41 ± 1.08 vs. 7.87 ± 1.02, both p < 0.05, respectively). Positive correlation between CAVI and Hcy was found in the entire study group (r = 0.109, p = 0.049) and hypertension subjects (group 2 + group 4; r = 0.202, p = 0.014). Multivariate analysis showed that Hcy was an independent associating factor of CAVI in all subjects (β = 0.251, p = 0.034). Conclusions: The present study showed that CAVI was significantly higher in hypertension subjects with HHcy compared to hypertension group. There was significant correlation between CAVI and Hcy, indicating the relationship between arterial stiffness and biomarkers in vascular-related diseases.

KEYWORDS:

• Arterial function
• cardio-ankle vascular index
• hyperhomocysteinemia
• hypertension
• hypertension complications

Disclosures

No conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise, are declared by the authors.

Ethics approval

Ethics approval has been granted from the ethics committee of Peking University Shougang Hospital.

Funding

This work was supported by grants from The Capital Health Research and Development of Special to HY Wang (No. 2011-4026-02), and the hospital fund of Peking University Shougang Hospital to Hongyu Wang (No. 2010-Y002 and 2014-Hospital-Clinical-02) and Jinbo Liu (No. 2012Y04), Shougang Keji Fund (2013 Keguan 20-1), and the Seeding Grant for Medicine and Engineering Sciences of Peking University (2014-ME-07).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grants from The Capital Health Research and Development of Special to HY Wang (No. 2011-4026-02), and the hospital fund of Peking University Shougang Hospital to Hongyu Wang (No. 2010-Y002 and 2014-Hospital-Clinical-02) and Jinbo Liu (No. 2012Y04), Shougang Keji Fund (2013 Keguan 20-1), and the Seeding Grant for Medicine and Engineering Sciences of Peking University (2014-ME-07).