{"doi":"10.17615/sr11-rv39","title":"The aortic-femoral arterial stiffness gradient is blood pressure independent in older adults: the atherosclerosis risk in communities (ARIC) study","abstract":"Background:Aortic arterial stiffness is a strong independent predictor of cardiovascular disease (CVD); however, its dependence on mean arterial pressure (MAP) limits its clinical utility. The aortic-femoral arterial stiffness gradient (af-SG), a novel marker of CVD risk, may be a promising alternative, but its dependence on MAP is not known. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between MAP and the af-SG in healthy older adults and those with established disease, including hypertension and diabetes.Method:We evaluated the dependency of the af-SG on MAP in healthy older adults (n = 694, aged 74 ± 5 years), and adults with hypertension (n = 2040, aged 76 ± 5 years), and diabetes (n = 1405, aged 75 ± 5 years) as part of the community-based Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study. Carotid-femoral pulse-wave velocity (cfPWV), femoral-ankle PWV (faPWV) and blood pressure were measured using standardized protocols. The af-SG was calculated as faPWV divided by cfPWV. Multivariable regression analysis was performed to test the independent association of MAP with af-SG, with adjustments for known confounders, including age, sex, BMI, blood glucose and heart rate.Results:There was no significant relationship between the af-SG and MAP in healthy (β = 0.002, P = 0.301), hypertension (β = -0.001, P = 0.298) or diabetes (β = -0.001, P = 0.063) population groups, with MAP explaining less than 0.1, less than 0.1 and 0.2% of the variance in the af-SG, respectively.Conclusion:These findings suggest that the af-SG may be regarded as a MAP independent index of arterial health and CVD risk in older adults.","journal":"UNC Libraries","year":2024,"id":499217,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9596,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":669334,"name":"Craig Paterson","orcid":"0000-0003-3125-9712","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":402435,"name":"Lee Stoner","orcid":"0000-0002-0682-2270","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":402442,"name":"James Faulkner","orcid":"0000-0002-3704-6737","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":616462,"name":"Kuni Matsushita","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1346271,"name":"Hiro TANAKA","orcid":"0000-0002-1713-2734","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":402436,"name":"Anna Kucharska‐Newton","orcid":"0000-0001-9864-467X","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":400022,"name":"Kevin S. Heffernan","orcid":"0000-0002-3499-1477","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1347196,"name":"Karen Stone","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1347177,"name":"G Zieff","orcid":null,"position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1345774,"name":"M.L Meyer","orcid":null,"position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":402440,"name":"Simon Fryer","orcid":"0000-0003-0376-0104","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1345808,"name":"T.M Hughes","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:09:45.971055Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}