Assessment of aortic stiffness determinants including smoking status by a novel semiautomatic doppler ultrasound

Numerous clinical and population-based research have asserted that aortic stiffness is an independent predictor of cardiovascular events and all-cause death. Reliable detection of the degree of aortic stiffness is crucial for risk stratification and formulation of personalized treatment strategies. The "gold standard" for evaluating aortic stiffness is the non-invasive ultrasonography assessment of the carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity. In this study, we evaluated the association of carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity with a variety of risk factors including age, blood pressure, blood lipids, body mass index, and other variables in 170 healthy participants (86 males, 84 females; ages ranged from 18 to 79 years old), using a novel semi-automatic Doppler ultrasound measurement, to identify the main clinical impact factors for AS. Smoking was regarded as a binary variable, and the deleterious effects of smoking on AS were assessed using a grouped matching method. Statistical analysis revealed that among all risk factors, carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity was primarily independently linked with age, blood pressure and heart rate. 36 participants were tightly selected based on smoking status using age and gender matching (18 in each group, all males). The findings revealed no significant differences in body mass index, blood pressure, blood glucose, or blood lipids between the smokers and non-smokers groups. However, the smokers' group had a statistically significantly higher carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (8.58 ± 2.04 m/s) compared to the non-smokers (7.67 ± 1.67 m/s). Among the numerous risk factors in healthy participants, carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity is most strongly and independently associated with age, blood pressure and heart rate. Additionally, smokers have higher aortic stiffness than nonsmokers. This finding was acquired using a novel semi-automatic measurement of Doppler ultrasound.