Central and peripheral pulse wave velocity and subclinical myocardial stress and damage in older adults

Background Arterial stiffness independently predicts cardiovascular disease. However, few studies have evaluated the associations of central and peripheral pulse wave velocity (PWV) with biomarkers of both myocardial stress (natriuretic peptide [NT-proBNP]) and damage (high-sensitivity cardiac troponin-T [hs-cTnT]) among persons without cardiac disease. Methods We examined 3,348 participants (67–90 years) without prevalent cardiac disease in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study (2011–13). The cross-sectional associations of PWV quartiles for central arterial segments (carotid-femoral, heart-carotid, heart-femoral) and peripheral artery (femoral-ankle) with NT-proBNP and hs-cTnT were evaluated accounting for potential confounders. Results Most PWV measures demonstrated J- or U-shaped associations with the two cardiac biomarkers. The highest (Q4) vs. second lowest (Q2) quartile of central PWV measures (carotid-femoral, heart-carotid, heart-femoral PWV) were associated with higher levels of NT-proBNP independently of demographic characteristics. The associations were less evident for hs-cTnT. These associations were attenuated after adjusting for traditional cardiovascular risk factors, but the heart-carotid PWV-NT-proBNP relationship remained borderline significant (difference in log-NT-proBNP = 0.08 [-0.01, 0.17] in Q4 vs. Q2, p = 0.07). Peripheral PWV demonstrated inverse associations. Higher values of NT-proBNP were seen in the lowest vs. second lowest quartile of all PWV measures. Conclusions Central stiffness measures showed stronger associations with cardiac biomarkers (particularly NT-proBNP) than peripheral measures among older adults without cardiac disease. Our findings are consistent with the concept of ventricular-vascular coupling and suggest that central rather than peripheral arterial hemodynamics are more closely related to myocardial stress rather than damage.