Arterial Stiffness: The New Frontier in Hypertension and Cardiovascular Disease

Vascular age is a reflection of cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular factors that contribute to accelerated vascular aging (AVA) and stiffness of large elastic arteries, leading to increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Arterial stiffness has been regarded as an important biomarker in the assessment of subclinical atherosclerosis and cardiovascular risk.^– The addition of pulse wave velocity (PWV) measurements to traditional risk factors has improved the prediction of the ten-year risk of cardiovascular diseases in 13% of individuals at intermediate risk.

In addition, the altered behavior of central hemodynamic parameters, such as central systolic blood pressure (cSBP) and the (heart rate-corrected) augmentation index (AI), is influenced by arterial stiffness and plays a crucial role in the interface between the traditional cardiovascular continuum vascular aging continuum, which represents the current view of the pathophysiology of cardiovascular diseases.^– ()

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