Cut-off value of brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity to predict cardiovascular disease in hypertensive patients: A cohort study

Aim: arterial stiffness has been reported to correlate with cardiovascular disease (cvd). brachialankle pulse wave velocity (bapwv) is easy to measure and has been used as a marker to evaluate arterial stiffness. the objective of the present study was to determine the cut-off value of bapwv for predicting cardiovascular prognosis in a prospective cohort study. methods: four hundred forty patients with essential hypertension were analyzed in study 1 with a mean follow-up of 6.3±0.1 years. four hundred patients from study 1 who did not have a past history of cvd and/or stroke were analyzed in study 2 with a mean follow-up of 6.4±0.1 years. stroke,cvd,and death were the primary endpoints. results: receiver operating characteristic (roc) curve analysis revealed that 1750.0 cm/sec is an appropriate cut-off value for bapwv to predict the onset of stroke,cvd,stroke+cvd,and total mortality (area under curve: 0.576-0.719). a bapwv higher than 1750.0 may also be a significant and independent risk factor for the onset of cvd+stroke (relative risk: 2.048 (1.176-3.616),p= 0.0113 in study 1; relative risk: 1.920 (1.028-3.634),p=0.0408 in study 2). conclusions: the present study indicates that 1750.0 cm/sec could be a useful cut-off value for bapwv to predict cardiovascular prognosis.