Vascular Health and Risk Management (Feb 2024)
Arterial Stiffness and Aortic Aneurysmal Disease – A Narrative Review
Abstract
Konstantinos G Moulakakis,1,* Christos F Pitros,1,* Ioannis T Theodosopoulos,2 Spyridon N Mylonas,3 John D Kakisis,2 Christos Manopoulos,4 Nikolaos PE Kadoglou5 1Department of Vascular Surgery, Patras University Hospital, University of Patras, Patras, Greece; 2Department of Vascular Surgery, “Attikon” University Hospital, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece; 3Department of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital of Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, 50937, Germany; 4Biofluid Mechanics and Biomedical Engineering Laboratory, Fluids Section, School of Mechanical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece; 5Medical School, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Konstantinos G Moulakakis, Associate Professor of Vascular Surgery, Vascular Surgery Department, Patras University Hospital, Patras, Greece, Tel +0030 6937357508, Email [email protected]: It has been documented that large-artery stiffness is independently associated with increased cardiovascular risk and may potentially lead to heart and kidney failure and cerebrovascular disease. A systematic review of studies investigating changes in arterial stiffness in patients undergoing endovascular repair of aortic disease was conducted. In addition, a review of the available literature was performed, analyzing findings from studies using the cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI) as a marker of arterial stiffness. Overall, 26 studies were included in the present analysis. Our research revealed a high heterogeneity of included studies regarding the techniques used to assess the aortic stiffness. Aortic stiffness was assessed by pulse wave velocity (PWV), elastic modulus (Ep), and augmentation index (AI). Currently a few studies exist investigating the role of CAVI in patients having an aortic aneurysm or undergoing endovascular aortic repair. The majority of studies showed that the treatment of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) either with open repair (OR) or endovascular aortic repair (EVAR) reduces aortic compliance significantly. Whether EVAR reconstruction might contribute a higher effect on arterial stiffness compared to OR needs further focused research. An increase of arterial stiffness was uniformly observed in studies investigating patients following thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR), and the effect was more pronounced in young patients. The effects of increased arterial stiffness after EVAR and TEVAR on the heart and the central hemodynamic, and an eventual effect on cardiac systolic function, need to be further investigated and evaluated in large studies and special groups of patients.Keywords: arterial stiffness, pulse wave velocity, PWV, cardio-ankle vascular index, CAVI, augmentation index, AI, aortic aneurysm, endovascular aortic aneurysm repair, EVAR, thoracic endovascular aortic aneurysm repair, TEVAR
