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Cardiovascular risk
Original article
Relationship between flow-mediated vasodilation and cardiovascular risk factors in a large community-based study
  1. Tatsuya Maruhashi1,
  2. Junko Soga1,
  3. Noritaka Fujimura1,
  4. Naomi Idei1,
  5. Shinsuke Mikami1,
  6. Yumiko Iwamoto1,
  7. Masato Kajikawa1,
  8. Takeshi Matsumoto1,
  9. Takayuki Hidaka1,
  10. Yasuki Kihara1,
  11. Kazuaki Chayama2,
  12. Kensuke Noma3,4,
  13. Ayumu Nakashima4,
  14. Chikara Goto5,
  15. Hirofumi Tomiyama6,
  16. Bonpei Takase7,
  17. Akira Yamashina6,
  18. Yukihito Higashi3,4
  1. 1Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Hiroshima University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Hiroshima, Japan
  2. 2Department of Medicine and Molecular Science, Hiroshima University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Hiroshima, Japan
  3. 3Department of Cardiovascular Regeneration and Medicine, Research Institute for Radiation Biology and Medicine, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan
  4. 4Division of Regeneration and Medicine, Hiroshima University Hospital, Hiroshima, Japan
  5. 5Hirohsima International University, Hiroshima, Japan
  6. 6The Second Department of Internal Medicine, Tokyo Medical University, Tokyo, Japan
  7. 7Division of Biomedical Engineering, National Defense Medical College Research Institute, Tokorozawa, Japan
  1. Correspondence to Professor Yukihito Higashi, Department of Cardiovascular Regeneration and Medicine, Research Institute for Radiation Biology and Medicine, Hiroshima University, 1-2-3 Kasumi, Minami-ku, Hiroshima 734-8551, Japan; yhigashi{at}hiroshima-u.ac.jp

Abstract

Objective To determine the relationships between flow-mediated vasodilation (FMD) and cardiovascular risk factors, and to evaluate confounding factors for measurement of FMD in a large general population in Japan.

Methods This was a cross-sectional study. A total of 5314 Japanese adults recruited from people who underwent health screening from 1 April 2010 to 31 August 2012 at 3 general hospitals in Japan. Patients’ risk factors (age, Body Mass Index, blood pressure, cholesterol parameters, glucose level and HbA1c level) and prevalence of cardiovascular disease (coronary heart disease and cerebrovascular disease) were investigated.

Results Univariate regression analysis revealed that FMD correlated with age (r=−0.27, p<0.001), Body Mass Index (r=−0.14, p<0.001), systolic blood pressure (r=−0.18, p<0.001), diastolic blood pressure (r=−0.13, p<0.001), total cholesterol (r=−0.07, p<0.001), triglycerides (r=−0.10, p<0.001), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (r=0.06, p<0.001), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (r=−0.04, p=0.01), glucose level (r=−0.14, p<0.001), HbA1c (r=−0.14, p<0.001), and baseline brachial artery diameter (r=−0.43, p<0.001) as well as Framingham Risk score (r=−0.29, p<0.001). Multivariate analysis revealed that age (t value=−9.17, p<0.001), sex (t value=9.29, p<0.001), Body Mass Index (t value=4.27, p<0.001), systolic blood pressure (t value=−2.86, p=0.004), diabetes mellitus (t value=−4.19, p<0.001), smoking (t value=−2.56, p=0.01), and baseline brachial artery diameter (t value=−29.4, p<0.001) were independent predictors of FMD.

Conclusions FMD may be a marker of the grade of atherosclerosis and may be used as a surrogate marker of cardiovascular outcomes. Age, sex, Body Mass Index, systolic blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, smoking and, particularly, baseline brachial artery diameter are potential confounding factors in the measurement of FMD.

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 3.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2013-304739

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