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Arterial stiffness: From surrogate marker to therapeutic target

Abstract

Carotid-femoral (aortic) pulse wave velocity (PWV) is the modern benchmark for the assessment of arterial stiffness. Current European hypertension guidelines acknowledge the good cardiovascular (CV) predictive value, reproducibility and cost-effectiveness of PWV. Aortic PWV is an asset to classical cardiovascular risk scores and can reclassify patients. Reference values for carotid-femoral PWV have been established. Together with standardisation of user procedures and patient conditions, these reference values are needed for an appropriate use of aortic stiffness in daily clinical practice. Finally, the existing evidence for a decrease in CV risk by decreasing aortic stiffness is discussed.

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Correspondence to Luc Van Bortel.

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This article was presented as lecture during the symposium on “Arterial stiffness: a translational approach” at the ARTERY 14 Congress in Maastricht, the Netherlands (October 9–11, 2014).

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This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license. https://doi.org/creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Van Bortel, L. Arterial stiffness: From surrogate marker to therapeutic target. Artery Res 14, 10–14 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.artres.2016.01.001

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