Vascular stiffness and endothelial dysfunction: Correlations at different levels of blood pressure

Figures & data

Table I. Clinical characteristics of resistant (RHTN), well-controlled (HTN) hypertensive patients and normotensive subjects (NT).

Parameter	RHTN (n = 44) Mean ± SD	HTN (n = 35) Mean ± SD	NT (n = 25) Mean ± SD
Age	52.6 ± 9.0	53.8 ± 12.3	50.5 ± 11.9
Gender, M/F	12/32	7/28	7/18
BMI	30.8 ± 6.1	29.3 ± 5.2	28.7 ± 6.4
SBP	157.6 ± 14.1*,*	139.7 ± 20.8*	113.6 ± 10.12
DBP	97.9 ± 9.2*,*	88.3 ± 13.2*	72.52 ± 8.03
Heart rate (beats/min)	68.1 ± 14.2	63.3 ± 10.1	69.7 ± 8.5
Glycemia	103.2 ± 36.1	95.6 ± 10.5	89.84 ± 22.7
Total cholesterol	187.0 ± 38.4	195.0 ± 36.9	175.1 ± 32.4
LDLc	110.9 ± 31.0	118.4 ± 31.9	96.9 ± 26.5
HDLc	48.5 ± 16.6	53.4 ± 16.6	55.6 ± 13.3
Triglycerides	159.1 ± 64.0	142.9 ± 89.4	100.7 ± 61.9
Sodium, mEq/l	140.6 ± 2.4	140.7 ± 1.8	141.0 ± 1.8
Potassium, mEq/l	4.1 ± 0.5	4.2 ± 0.4	4.2 ± 0.4
Creatinine, mg/dl	0.99 ± 0.34	0.85 ± 0.5	0.86 ± 0.1
Clearance, mg/l/min	86.5 ± 24.3	97.9 ± 40.6	116.1 ± 26.0
Urine sodium, mEq/24 h	190.2 ± 79.1	171.3 ± 47.5	189.6 ± 86.1

RHTN, resistant hypertensive; HTN, well-controlled hypertensive patients; NT, normotensive subjects; BMI, body mass index; SBP, systolic blood pressure; DBP, diastolic blood pressure; LDLc, low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol; HDLc, high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol. The values are expressed as means ± standard deviation; *p < 0.05 vs NT; *p < 0.05 vs HTN.

Table II. Results of arterial profile readings in pulse wave velocity (PWV), brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD) and nitroglycerin-induced (NTG) of resistant hypertensive (RHTN), well-controlled (HTN) hypertensive patients and normotensive studied subjects (NT).

		Mean ± DP	CI (95%)	p-value
RHTN	Time C-F	54.4 ± 13.4	56.2–66.0	< 0.001 vs HTN
HTN	Time C-F	61.1 ± 9.6	55.6–62.5	< 0.001 vs NT
NT	Time C-F	68.8 ± 9.0	65.0–72.6
RHTN	PWV C-F	8.9 ± 1.0	11.2–14.1	< 0.01 vs HTN
HTN	PWV C-F	8.2 ± 1.5	8.7–12.4	< 0.001 vs NT
NT	PWV C-F	7.3 ± 1.2	7.8–9.2
RHTN	FMD	8.3 ± 4.6	6.9–9.7	< 0.01 vs HTN
HTN	FMD	10.1 ± 5.9	8.1–12.1	0.001 vs NT
NT	FMD	12.3 ± 6.3	9.6–14.9
RHTN	NTG	27.6 ± 7.7	17.3–21.9
HTN	NTG	28.7 ± 10.2	19.2–26.2
NT	NTG	29.7 ± 10.5	25.3–34.0

The values are expressed as means ± standard deviation; Statistical significance (p < 0.05); C-F, carotid–femoral; RHTN, resistant hypertensive; HTN, well-controlled hypertensive patients; NT, normotensive subjects.

Table III. Comparison of pulse wave velocity mean values (PWV C-F, m/s) adjusted for systolic (SAP, mmHg), diastolic (DAP, mmHg) and mean arterial (MAP) pressures among the three groups (RHTN, HTN and NT).

	RHTN	HTN	NT
PWV C-F 9adj (SAP, m/s)	13.9 ± 1.0*,*	11.5 ± 1.1*	8.8 ± 1.3
PWV C-F 9adj (DAP, m/s)	11.7 ± 1.4*,^**	9.3 ± 1.2*	8.1 ± 1.1
PWV C-F 9adj (MAP, m/s)	9.9 ± 1.0*,*	8.2 ± 1.1*	7.1 ± 0.9

C-F, carotid–femoral; RHTN: resistant hypertensive; HTN: well-controlled hypertensive patients; NT: normotensive subjects. The values are expressed as means ± standard deviation; *p < 0.05 vs NT; *p < 0.05 vs HTN.

Figure 1. Results of readings of the brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD) and nitroglycerin-induced (NTG) of the resistant hypertensive (RHTN), well-controlled (HTN) hypertensive patients and the normotensive studied subjects (NT).

Figure 2. Results of readings of the arterial profile in pulse wave velocity (PWV) of the resistant hypertensive (RHTN), well-controlled (HTN) hypertensive patients and the normotensive studied subjects (NT).

Figure 3. (A) Correlation between flow-mediated dilation (FMD; NO-dependent) and pulse wave velocity (PWV)-adjusted values in resistant hypertensive (RHTN); (B) correlation between FMD (NO-dependent) and PWV-adjusted values in well-controlled (HTN) hypertensive patients; (C) correlation between FMD (NO-dependent) and PWV-adjusted values in normotensive studied subjects (NT).