Key result
Echo-derived aortic stiffness rises in both hypotension and hypertension, while peripheral resistance increases with hypertensive grade.
Why the study?
How do aortic stiffness and peripheral resistance measured via routine echocardiogram correlate with blood pressure and BMI?
Observational (n=259)
How do aortic stiffness and peripheral resistance measured via routine echocardiogram correlate with blood pressure and BMI?
A novel echocardiography-based method demonstrates that aortic stiffness is elevated in both hypotension and hypertension, and inversely correlates with BMI, potentially offering insights into the obesity paradox.
Aortic stiffness variability was associated with cardiovascular risk in routine hemodynamics; hypothesis-generating for prospective trials targeting it as a modifiable factor.
Retrospective data for 259 patients is used to calculate aortic stiffness based on a new method which has been previously verified with in-vitro and in-hospital carotid-femoral Pulse Wave Velocity (cfPWV) studies. For this group of patients, it is shown that the greatest variability within the hemodynamic record is the aortic stiffness, followed by the peripheral resistance - both present risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Our research shows that elevated stiffness is observed in both hypotensive and hypertensive patients, while the peripheral resistance increases monotonically with hypertensive grade. Our research also shows that stiffness and resistance decrease with increasing BMI which may indicate secondary causes for the obesity paradox documented in previous studies.
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Gudenkauf et al. (2026) conducted an observational in Cardiovascular disease risk factors (n=259). Routine echocardiogram-based calculation of aortic stiffness and peripheral resistance was evaluated on Aortic stiffness and peripheral resistance. Aortic stiffness calculated via routine echocardiogram was elevated in both hypotensive and hypertensive patients, while peripheral resistance increased monotonically with hypertensive grade.
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