Pulse amplitude tonometry demonstrated strong test-retest repeatability for reactive hyperemia index and augmentation index (intra-class correlations 0.74 and 0.83, respectively) in healthy adults.
Observational (n=20)
Is pulse amplitude tonometry (PAT) a reliable and repeatable measure of vascular endothelial function and arterial stiffness in healthy adults?
Pulse amplitude tonometry is a reliable, repeatable non-invasive measure of endothelial function and arterial stiffness over a >1 week interval, supporting its use in clinical trials.
Effect estimate: ICC 0.74 for RHI and 0.83 for AI
Endothelial dysfunction is an important outcome for assessing vascular health in intervention studies. However, reliability of the standard non-invasive method (flow-mediated dilation) is a significant challenge for clinical applications and multicenter trials. We evaluated the repeatability of pulse amplitude tonometry (PAT) to measure change in pulse wave amplitude during reactive hyperemia (Itamar Medical Ltd, Caesarea, Israel). Twenty healthy adults completed two PAT tests (mean interval = 19.5 days) under standardized conditions. PAT-derived measures of endothelial function (reactive hyperemia index, RHI) and arterial stiffness (augmentation index, AI) showed strong repeatability (intra-class correlations = 0.74 and 0.83, respectively). To guide future research, we also analyzed sample size requirements for a range of effect sizes. A crossover design powered at 0.90 requires 28 participants to detect a 15% change in RHI. Our study is the first to show that PAT measurements are repeatable in adults over an interval greater than 1 week.
McCrea et al. (Wed,) conducted a observational in Healthy (n=20). Pulse amplitude tonometry (PAT) was evaluated on Repeatability of reactive hyperemia index (RHI) and augmentation index (AI) (ICC 0.74 for RHI and 0.83 for AI). Pulse amplitude tonometry demonstrated strong test-retest repeatability for reactive hyperemia index and augmentation index (intra-class correlations 0.74 and 0.83, respectively) in healthy adults.