Why the study?
The extent to which wave reflection indices used to assess vascular ageing are influenced by factors other than vascular health remains a matter of concern.
The proposed mathematical model provides a theoretical framework to understand how wave reflection indices like Trefl and AI are influenced by factors other than vascular health.
Model of wave reflection supports age-related shifts; leaves open prospective clinical validation before cardiovascular risk use.
Reflected pressure waves are key to the understanding of vascular ageing, a prominent factor in major cardiovascular events. Several different metrics have been proposed to index the effect of wave reflection on the pressure waveform and thereby serve as an indicator of vascular ageing. The extent to which these indices are influenced by factors other than vascular health remains a matter of concern. In this paper, we use transmission-line theory to derive a mathematical model for the reflection time (Trefl), and the augmentation index (AI), assuming a general extended model of the arterial system. Then, we test the proposed model against values reported in the literature. Finally, we discuss insights from the model to common observations in the literature such as age-related “shift” in the reflection site, the variation of AI with heart rate, and the flattening of Trefl in older participants.
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Afkhami et al. (2021) studied this question.
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