The Clinical Significance Of Ambulatory Arterial Stiffness Index In Evaluating Target Organ Damage In Primary Hypertension

Background and objective:For nearly half a century, our life-style has greatly changed in many aspects. As a resultof changes in dietary structure, decrease in manual labor and outdoor activities,psychological and social factors and aging of population etc., the risk of hypertension isincreasing year by year. The damage to heart, brain, kidney, blood vessels and the accordingcomplications resulted by hypertension can greatly affect people’s longevity and quality oflife. Target organ damage is the intermediate stage of chain of events in vascular disease, andalso the determining factor in the overall risk of cardiovascular disease. Therefore it is vitalto detect target organ damage in time and give corresponding intervention, so that the rate ofcripple and death resulted by hypertension can be reduced. Ambulatory arterial stiffnessindex (AASI) is a new index recently calculated from24h ambulatory blood pressuremonitoring, which is well correlated with pulse wave velocity (PWV) and closely related totarget organ damage and cardiovascular events. AASI may have a broad prospect in clinicalapplication but at present studies and clinical experience are still lacking. This study analysesthe relationship between AASI and monitoring index of target organ damages, such as IMT,eGFR, abPWV and ABI, which hopefully will provide clinical evidence.Methods:In this research,we studied91cases of patients with primary hypertension (hypertensiongroup) from The First Hospital of Jilin University Cadres Ward and Physical ExaminationCenter from October2011to October2013, and also78cases with normal blood pressurefor comparison (comparison group). As for data processing, t-test statistical analysis wasused for comparing the differences in AASI, IMT, eGFR, abPWV and ABI betweenhypertension group and caparison group. In the meanwhile Pearson Correlation Analysis wasused for studying the relationship between AASI and IMT, eGFR, abPWV, ABI.Results:1. AASI of hypertension group was obviously higher than comparison group, thediference was statistically significant (P <0.01). 2. IMT and abPWV of hypertension group was obviously higher than that ofcomparison group, while ABI and eGFR were significantly lower than the latter, and thedifferences were statistically significant (P <0.01).3. There was obviously positive correlation in hypertension group between AASI andIMT, abPWV (P<0.01), but negative correlation between AASI and ABI, eGFR (P<0.01), allhaving statistical significance. However, in the comparison group only abPWV and AASIwere positively correlated, having statistical significance (P<0.05), and the relationshipbetween AASI and IMT, ABI, eGFR had no statistical significance (P>0.05).Conclusions:1. There was obviously positive correlation in hypertension group between AASI andIMT, abPWV, but negative correlation between AASI and ABI, eGFR,thus we can concludethat AASI can serve as an evaluation indicator for target organ damage in primaryhypertension2. Compared with routine examination, for example, atherosclerosis monitoring, AASIis an easier way to be applied and promoted in clinic practice.