A new method for vascular age estimation based on relative risk difference in vascular aging

OBJECTIVE: The current models of estimating vascular age (VA) primarily rely on the regression label expressed with chronological age (CA), which does not account individual differences in vascular aging (IDVA) that are difficult to describe by CA. This may lead to inaccuracies in assessing the risk of cardiovascular disease based on VA. To address this limitation, this work aims to develop a new method for estimating VA by considering IDVA. This method will provide a more accurate assessment of cardiovascular disease risk. METHODS: Relative risk difference in vascular aging (RRDVA) is proposed to replace IDVA, which is represented as the numerical difference between individual predicted age (PA) and the corresponding mean PA of healthy population. RRDVA and CA are regard as the influence factors to acquire VA. In order to acquire PA of all samples, this work takes CA as the dependent variable, and mines the two most representative indicators from arteriosclerosis data as the independent variables, to establish a regression model for obtaining PA. RESULTS: The proposed VA based on RRDVA is significantly correlated with 27 indirect indicators for vascular aging evaluation. Moreover, VA is better than CA by comparing the correlation coefficients between VA, CA and 27 indirect indicators, and RRDVA greater than zero presents a higher risk of disease. CONCLUSION: The proposed VA overcomes the limitation of CA in characterizing IDVA, which may help young groups with high disease risk to promote healthy behaviors.