Key result
Carotid-femoral PWV remains flat at ~5 m/s between ages 7 and 14 in children.
Why the study?
Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity reference values for African children were needed to enable accurate surveillance of arterial stiffness.
What are the age-, height-, and gender-specific reference values for carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity using the oscillometric Vicorder device and an anatomical distance calculation in South African children and adolescents?
Cohort (n=324)
No
What are the age-, height-, and gender-specific reference values for carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity using the oscillometric Vicorder device and an anatomical distance calculation in South African children and adolescents?
Provides the largest population-specific carotid-femoral PWV reference curves and Z-score equations for sub-Saharan African children using the Vicorder device and demonstrates that true anatomical path-length correction yields a flat PWV across childhood, avoiding spurious age- and height-related increases caused by straight-line distance formulas.
May refine pediatric PWV norms in African children; leaves open outcome validation before clinical adoption.
Atherosclerosis often starts in childhood, tracking to adulthood. In children, early vascular disease can be detected as arterial stiffness. Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity is considered the non-invasive gold standard method for measuring arterial stiffness and widely accepted for use in children. We define pulse wave velocity (PWV) reference values for African children, in a cohort of children and adolescents living in Cape Town, South Africa, using the oscillometric Vicorder device, and considering the anatomical pathway in growing children. Three hundred and twenty four children (6-16 years old) were followed annually at Tygerberg Hospital, from March 2014 to March 2020, yielding 959 longitudinal PWV measurements. Centile curves for males and females by age and height were constructed using the Lamda-Mu-Sigma (LMS) method. Our study demonstrates that African children have a relatively flat PWV throughout childhood and early adolescence, from 7 to 14 years of age, and between 120 and 170 cm standing height. These gender-specific percentiles for age and height will allow accurate surveillance of arterial elasticity in African children over time. The identification of children at high risk is important given the long-term health implications and the effectiveness of early intervention to prevent progression to cardiovascular disease.
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Davies et al. (2025) conducted a cohort in Pediatric arterial stiffness surveillance / healthy children without acute or chronic disease (n=324). Oscillometric Vicorder carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity measurement using an anatomical distance calculation across childhood growth (age and height) was evaluated on Gender-specific carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV) reference percentile curves by age (7-14 years) and standing height (120-170 cm). Carotid-femoral PWV using an anatomical distance calculation remained flat from 7 to 14 years of age in South African children (median 4.86 m/s in males and 5.01 m/s in females).
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