Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2010, 221(2)

Aortic Annular Velocity Assessed by Tissue Doppler Echocardiography as a Potential Parameter of Arterial Stiffness

HISASHI MASUGATA,¹ SHOICHI SENDA,¹ HIROYUKI OKUYAMA,¹ KOJI MURAO,² NAOHISA HOSOMI,³ MICHIO INUKAI,¹ YASUYOSHI IWADO,² TAKAHISA NOMA,² MASAKAZU KOHNO² and FUMINORI GODA¹

¹Department of Integrated Medicine, Kagawa University, Kagawa, Japan
²Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Kagawa University, Kagawa, Japan
³Department of Clinical Neuroscience and Therapeutics, Hiroshima University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Hiroshima, Japan
⁴Department of Cardiorenal and Cerebrovascular Medicine, Kagawa University, Kagawa, Japan

Although mitral annular velocity assessed by tissue Doppler echocardiography has been established as a parameter of left ventricular (LV) diastolic function, aortic annular velocity has never been investigated as a parameter of cardiovascular function. We investigated whether aortic annular velocity can be measured using the same tissue Doppler echocardiographic method that is used for measuring mitral annular velocity, as well as the correlation between the aortic annular velocity thus measured and arterial stiffness that was assessed by the cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI). Sixty-three patients (69 ± 13 years) with hypertension, diabetes, or dyslipidemia, who had no overt heart disease, were enrolled. The mitral and aortic annular velocities were measured at the mitral and aortic annuluses, respectively, using tissue Doppler echocardiography. Aortic annular velocity was successfully obtained in all patients. The correlation between the peak early diastolic aortic annular velocity (r = −0.803, p < 0.001) and CAVI as an index of arterial stiffness was greater than that of the peak early diastolic mitral velocity and CAVI (r = −0.649, p < 0.001). Stepwise regression analysis showed that the age (β coefficient = 0.488, p = 0.002) and the peak early diastolic aortic annular velocity (β coefficient = −0.405, p = 0.008) were independent determinants of the CAVI. The strong inter-relationship was found between left ventricular diastolic function assessed by the aortic annular velocity and arterial stiffness assessed by CAVI. In conclusion, the aortic annular velocity may be helpful for assessing arterial stiffness in patients with cardiovascular risk factors.

keywords —— tissue Doppler echocardiography; left ventricular diastolic function; arterial stiffness; mitral annular velocity; aortic annular velocity

© 2010 Tohoku University Medical Press

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Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2010, 221, 169-174

Correspondence: Hisashi Masugata, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Integrated Medicine, Kagawa University, 1750-1, Miki-cho, Kita-gun, Kagawa 761-0793, Japan.

e-mail: masugata@med.kagawa-u.ac.jp