Blood pressure, carotid-femoral and brachioradial pulse wave velocities were measured in 123 male subjects: 32 normal subjects and 91 age-matched patients with susained essential hypertension. The ratio between brachioradial (BR) and carotid-femoral (CF) pulse wave velocities was used as a marker of pressure wave amplitude changes from the aorta to the brachial artery. The ratio was similar in normotensive and hypertensive subjects and decreased with age to the same extent in both populations. In older subjects, the decrease in the ratio indicated that the amplitude of pulse pressure was quite similar in the aorta and the brachial artery whether the subjects were normotensives or hypertensives. The study provided evidence that adaptive changes occur in the arterial (aortic) wall in hypertension, for the effects of age on pressure wave transmission are similar in normal subjects and hypertensive patients. Such findings may be of prime importance in understanding the brachial blood pressure readings of patients with hypertension.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
McDonald DA: Blood Flow in Arteries. London, Edward Arnold, 1974, pp 238-282, 309-350, 389-419.
2.
O'Rourke MF: Arterial Function in Health and Disease. Edinburgh, Churchill Livingstone, 1982, pp 133-152, 185-198.
3.
Bouthier JD, De Luca N., Safar ME, et al: Cardiac hypertrophy and arterial distensibility in essential hypertension. Am Heart J109:1345-1352, 1985.
4.
Avolio AP, Chen SG, Wang RP, et al: Effects of aging on changing arterial compliance and left ventricular load in a northern Chinese urban community. Circulation68:50-58, 1983.
5.
Gribbin B., Pickering TG, Sleight P.: Arterial distensibility in normal and hypertensive man. Clin Sci56:413-417, 1979.
6.
Smulyan H., Ermely TJ, Mookherjee S., et al: Effect of age on arterial distensibility in asymptomatic humans . Arteriosclerosis3:199-205, 1983.
7.
Taylor MG: Wave travel and the design of the cardiovascular system. In: Pulsatile Blood Flow, ed. by Attinger EO.New York, McGraw-Hill, 1964, pp 343-367.
8.
Sokal RR, Rohlf FJ: Biometry, the Principles of Statistics in Biological Research, 2nd ed. New York, Freeman and Co, 1981, pp 321-400.
9.
O'Rourke MF, Blazek JV, Morreels CL, et al: Pressure wave transmission along the human aorta. Circ Res23:567-579, 1968.
10.
Bramwell JC , Hill AV: The velocity of the pulse wave in man. Proc Roy Soc Lond (Biol)93:298-306, 1922.
11.
Hallock P.: Arterial elasticity in man: Relationship to age as evaluated by the pulse wave velocity method. Arch Intern Med54:770-798, 1934.
12.
Schimler W. : Untersuchungen zu Elastizitatsproblemen der Aorta. Arch Kreislaufforschung47:189-233, 1965.
13.
Bader H.: Dependence of wall stress in the human thoracic aorta on age and pressure . Circ Res20:354-361, 1967.
14.
Simon AC, Levenson J., Bouthier J., et al: Evidence of early degenerative changes in large arteries in human essential hypertension. Hypertension7:675-680, 1985.
15.
Avolio AP: Pulse wave velocity and hypertension. In: Arterial and Venous Systems in Essential Hypertension, ed. by Safar ME.Martinus Nijhoff Pub, 1987 , pp 133-152.
16.
O'Rourke MF: Influence of ventricular ejection on the relationship between central aortic and brachial pressure pulse in man. Cardiovasc Res4:291-300, 1970.
17.
Pickering GW: Essential hypertension. In: High Blood Pressure, 2nd ed., ed. by Churchill JA.London , Churchill, 1968, pp 316-366.
18.
Freis ED: The Veterans trial and sequelae. Br J Clin Pharmacol13:67-72, 1982.
