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Total arterial compliance: the future of cardiovascular risk assessment?

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 24, pages 227–229 (2010)Cite this article

In recent years, cardiovascular risk assessment has developed into an important area of research in the management of patients at risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD) and to gain more insight into the risk progression of those suffering from CVD. A multitude of new invasive and non-invasive assessments, questionnaires and combinations of the aforementioned have been introduced and tested in order to determine their clinical utility in the stratification of cardiovascular risk. Circulating markers of endothelial function and inflammation, such as endothelin, von Willebrand factor and C-reactive protein, have been identified as useful markers not only in the diagnosis of CVD but also in disease monitoring, progression and risk assessment.1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Nevertheless, there are limitations as to how much information these markers are able to provide with respect to CVD risk and local structure and organ integrity. Thus, other technologies assessing more structural and functional parameters have been evaluated with regard to their strength and value in CVD risk assessment.5 Lifestyle factors, age and other environmental factors have added to the list of risk identifiers and predictors.6, 7 All of these facets provide valuable information describing an individual's cardiovascular health. However, the sheer multitude of the available assessments has rather caused confusion than clarification, because of the lack of a common basis, structure and guidelines not only in administering those tests but also in their interpretation.

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  1. School of Life and Health Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, UK

    R Heitmar

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Heitmar, R. Total arterial compliance: the future of cardiovascular risk assessment?. J Hum Hypertens 24, 227–229 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/jhh.2009.106

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