Interrelationships between indices of longitudinal movement of the common carotid artery wall and the conventional measures of subclinical arteriosclerosis

Our objective was to study the interrelationships between longitudinal movement of the wall of the common carotid artery and the conventional measures of arteriosclerosis in a large and well-characterized study population. Successful longitudinal movement analyses were performed on 292 subjects. The peak-to-peak and retrograde amplitudes of the longitudinal movement were directly correlated with carotid artery distensibility (r = 0·21, P<0·001 and r = 0·23, P<0·001, respectively) and inversely correlated with pulse wave velocity (r = -0·14, P<0·05 and r = -0·17, P<0·01, respectively). All longitudinal motion parameters were independent of brachial flow-mediated dilatation and intima-media thickness. Our findings indicate that arterial stiffening modulates longitudinal movement and, therefore, measurement of longitudinal movement can be of value in the assessment of vascular health.