Pulse (Basel, Switzerland)

BACKGROUND: Despite advancements in coronary artery disease (CAD) treatment with drug-eluting stent, its morbidity and mortality remain high. In context, intravascular imaging-guided percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is increasingly recommended for better clinical outcomes in patient with CAD. Near-infrared spectroscopy-intravascular ultrasound (NIRS-IVUS), as one of the intravascular imaging methods, is effective in detecting lipid-rich plaques, which is crucial for identifying high-risk or vulnerable plaques employing near-infrared light...

BACKGROUND: Exercise training elicits indubitable positive adaptation in microcirculation in health and disease populations. An inclusive overview of the current knowledge regarding the effects of exercise on microvascular function consolidates an in-depth understanding of microvasculature. SUMMARY: The main physiological function of microvasculature is to maintain optimal blood flow regulation to supply oxygen and nutrition during elevated physical demands in the cardiovascular system...

BACKGROUND: Genetic variants causing diseases with hypertension as a secondary feature have previously been identified. Studies focussing on primary hypertension have utilised common and latterly rare genetic variants in attempts to elucidate the genetic contribution to the risk of primary hypertension. SUMMARY: Using genome-wide association studies (GWASs), associations of hypertension with hundreds of common genetic variants have been reported, implicating thousands of genes...

Diabetes may induce multiple organ damage; therefore, early detection of individuals at high-risk of incident diabetes is important for timely risk assessment and intervention. Arterial stiffness (AS) occurs as a result of functional and structural changes in the arterial wall. Growing body of evidence suggests that AS is a risk factor for incident diabetes. Although each study could use different indicators for AS (ex cf-PWV, baPWV, etc.), they came to similar conclusion that AS was associated with higher risk of incident diabetes...

INTRODUCTION: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is associated with vascular dysfunction, one of the signs of which is arterial stiffness. Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV), which is considered the gold standard measure of arterial stiffness, can be estimated using two commonly assessed clinical variables: age and blood pressure. This study aimed to evaluate the association between estimated PWV (ePWV) and the prevalence and incidence of NAFLD among Korean adults. METHODS: This study used data from the Ansan-Ansung cohort study, a subset of the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study, and included 8,336 adult participants with and without NAFLD at baseline...

INTRODUCTION: A previous study of 200,000 exome-sequenced UK Biobank participants to test for association of rare coding variants with hypertension implicated two genes at exome-wide significance, DNMT3A and FES . A total of 42 genes had an uncorrected p value <0.001. These results were followed up in a larger sample of 470,000 exome-sequenced participants. METHODS: Weighted burden analysis of rare coding variants in a new sample of 97,050 cases and 172,263 controls was carried out for these 42 genes...

Alongside cancer, cardiovascular disease (CVD) exhibits the highest rates of morbidity and mortality globally, in western society as well as in Asian countries. Aging is a serious problem for the Asian population as progression toward a super-aged society is moving at a remarkably high rate. This increased rate of aging leads to increased CVD risk and, consequently, high CVD incidence. However, aging is not the only deleterious factor of vascular problems; hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes mellitus, and kidney disease may induce atherosclerosis and arteriosclerosis (i...

Aortic stiffness increases with age and is a robust predictor of cerebrovascular events and cognitive decline including Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. Recent clinical studies have investigated the association between proximal aortic stiffness and pulsatile energy transmission that has deleterious effects on the cerebrovascular network in order to identify potential therapeutic targets. Aging causes disproportionate stiffening of the aorta compared with the carotid arteries, reducing protective impedance mismatches at their interface, increasing the transmission of destructive pulsatile pressure and energy to the cerebral circulation, and leading to cerebral small vessel disease...

AIM: The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of fQRS and its association with subclinical systolic and microvascular dysfunction in patients with masked hypertension (MH). METHODS: The study population consisted of 95 (mean age 48.9 ± 11.3, 61% males) subjects with MH and 80 age- and gender-matched healthy individuals who served as a control group. Coronary flow reserve (CFR) using transthoracic echocardiography and for left ventricular global longitudinal strain (LVGLS) using speckle-tracking strain imaging were performed...

The global health burden presented by hypertension is providing increased motivation for improved means of collection of blood pressure (BP) data. A growing area of research and commercial activity is the use of wearable devices to provide BP data using non-invasive cuffless techniques. The accelerated progress in recent years, particularly relating to connectivity of smartphone technology, has promoted the availability of consumer devices that provide values of BP. The main types of devices are wrist-worn, watch-type devices with sensors that typically record a photoplethysmography (PPG) signal, sometimes also with an electrocardiography (ECG) signal...

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Arterial stiffness is a progressive aging process that predicts cardiovascular disease. Pulse wave velocity (PWV) has emerged as a noninvasive, valid, and reliable measure of arterial stiffness and an independent risk predictor for adverse outcomes. However, up to now, PWV measurement has mostly been used as a tool for risk prediction and has not been widely used in clinical practice. This consensus paper aims to discuss multiple PWV measurements currently available in Asia and to provide evidence-based assessment together with recommendations on the clinical use of PWV...

Severe hypertension has numerous etiologies. When accompanied by bradycardia, the spectrum of differential diagnoses is greatly narrowed and is commonly seen in patients with increased intracranial pressure. However, other etiologies such as bradycardia-induced hypertension are rarely mentioned. Here we report the case of a 73-year-old woman presenting with symptoms of heart failure, severe hypertension, and bradycardia with a 2:1 atrioventricular block. Echocardiography demonstrated increased left ventricular filling secondary to bradycardia and prolonged diastole, leading to greater ventricular stretch, increased contractile force and greater stroke volume (Frank-Starling mechanism), which subsequently caused elevated systolic blood pressure (BP), low diastolic BP and a wide pulse pressure...

Objective: We aimed to investigate the relation between CHA2 DS2 -VASc score and microvascular dysfunction (MVD) assessed by the index of microvascular resistance (IMR) immediately after primary percutaneous intervention (PPCI) for patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Subjects and Methods: The study included 115 consecutive patients with STEMI who underwent successful PPCI. Angiographic results of reperfusion were inspected to evaluate the association of high CHA2 DS2 -VASc score and IMR...

Introduction: The augmentation index (AIx) or central systolic blood pressure (SBP), measured by radial applanation tonometry, has been reported to be independently associated with left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) in Japanese hypertensive patients. Cuff-based oscillometric measurement of the AIx using Mobil-O-Graph® showed a low or moderate agreement with the AIx measurement with other devices. Methods: The AIx measured using the Mobil-O-Graph was validated against the tonometric measurements of the radial AIx measured using HEM-9000AI in 110 normotensive healthy individuals (age, 21-76 years; 50 men)...

Background and Objective: Serum copper has been linked to the risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, the potential association between serum copper and venous thromboembolism (VTE) is not known. The principal aim was to evaluate the potential prospective association between serum copper and VTE risk. A secondary aim was to confirm or refute previously reported associations between serum copper and atherosclerotic CVD. Methods: Serum copper was measured at baseline using atomic absorption spectrometry in 2,492 men aged 42-61 years without a history of VTE in the Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease prospective cohort study...

Introduction: The relationship between low flow-mediated constriction (LFMC), a new proposed measure of endothelial function, with cardiovascular disease severity and its hypothesized stimulus, that is, low flow, has not been comprehensively evaluated. The study evaluated association between change in brachial artery diameter during constriction with severity of myocardial perfusion defect (PD) and alterations in different components of flow profile. Methods: Brachial artery responses to occlusion were assessed in 91 patients and 30 healthy subjects...

Introduction: Hypertension (HTN) and diabetes frequently coexist, imposing significant cardiovascular risk that is normally studied in terms of brachial blood pressure (bBP). Direct and superior parameters like central haemodynamics and arterial stiffness are studied scarcely. Pulse wave analysis (PWA) offers a non-invasive measurement of the same that we studied in diabetic hypertensives. Materials and Methods: We conducted a case-control study on 333 treated diabetic hypertensive cases and 333 euglycaemic normotensive controls...

INTRODUCTION: Radiotherapy plays a prominent role in the multidisciplinary treatment of cancers. Despite new irradiation techniques, radiation-induced cardiotoxicity remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Therefore, prognostic indicators of radiotherapy toxicity are essential. This study aimed to investigate the influence of applied radiotherapy on the pulse wave recording and thereby on cardiovascular health, as well as to assess whether high signal resolution (HSR) pulse oximetry could be used as a prognostic indicator of radiotherapy toxicity...

Background: A variety of arterial stiffness measures have been used to assess the impacts of disease states and various interventions without clear consensus among them. One of the primary problems faced by investigators conducting systematic reviews and meta-analyses is the lack of standardized methodology with a same unit to evaluate and compare investigations using different arterial stiffness measures. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to derive and summarize standardized equations to convert commonly used image-based measures of arterial stiffness to local pulse wave velocity (PWV)...