Does Doppler ultrasound provide reliable and reproducible measurements of pulse wave velocity compared to the Complior method in patients with cardiovascular risk factors?
Doppler ultrasound is a reliable and reproducible alternative to mechanical methods like Complior for measuring aortic pulse wave velocity to assess arterial stiffness.
Aortic stiffness is an independent predictor factor for cardiovascular risk. Different methods for determining pulse wave velocity (PWV) are used, among which the most common are mechanical methods such as SphygmoCor or Complior, which require specific devices and are limited by technical difficulty in obtaining measurements. Doppler guided by 2D ultrasound is a good alternative to these methods. We studied 40 patients (29 male, aged 21 to 82 years) comparing the Complior method with Doppler. Agreement of both devices was high (R = 0.91, 0.84-0.95, 95% CI). The reproducibility analysis revealed no intra-nor interobserver differences. Based on these results, we conclude that Doppler ultrasound is a reliable and reproducible alternative to other established methods for the measurement of aortic PWV.
Martínez et al. (Fri,) studied this question.