Arterial stiffening is paramount to vascular ageing and is associated with atherosclerosis, vascular calcification and inflammation. A worldwide team around Raimund Pechlaner from Medical University Innsbruck, the Third Xiangya Hospital, Stefan Kiechl and Sophia Kiechl from VASCage determined new reference values for pulse wave velocity measurement (PWV) as cardiovascular risk predictor. Measurements of brachial-ankle or carotid-femoral PWV (baPWV or cfPWV) in 509,743 generally healthy participants from 34 countries were included. The study provides global and regional age- and sex-dependent distributions and reference values of baPWV and cfPWV, which may aid increased clinical use of PWV as a measure of vascular ageing, predictor of hypertensive end-organ damage, cardiovascular disease, and death.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/ebiom/article/PIIS2352-3964(23)00184-6/fulltext
