P63 CAN BRAQUIAL OSCILLOMETRY IDENTIFY PREHYPERTENSION AMONG NORMOTENSIVE SUBJECTS?

Abstract

Background and objective: Arterial stiffness (AS) reflects vascular damage. Our objective was to determine 1) the frequency of AS in community pharmacies, 2) if subjects with AS identified by brachial oscillometry have more CV risk factors than normal subjects, and 3) if the prevalence of AS varies upon using either age-adjusted values or a fixed threshold. Patients and method: Observational, cross-sectional study in 32 community pharmacies of the Valencia Community, between 11/2015 and 4/2016. AS was measured as pulse wave velocity (PWV) with a semi-automatic, validated device (MOBIL-O-GRAPH®, IEM), followed by a 10-item questionnaire. Results: Mean age of the 1427 consecutive recruited subjects was 56.6 years. Overall prevalence of patients with AS was 17.4% with age-adjusted PWV (9.4% in normotensives, 28.3% in hypertensives). AS showed independent association in normotensives with male gender, obesity, higher pulse pressure and heart rate, in hypertensives, with higher pulse pressure and lower age in multivariate logistic regression. Defining stiffness by PWV > 10 m/s, AS was globally found in 20.5% of subjects, (6.2% in normotensives, 40.2% in hypertensives). It was associated with higher age and pulse pressure in both groups. Concordance in classifying stiffness was 74.6%. Conclusions: Almost 10% of normotensives showed AS – measured by brachial oscillometry – when adjusting for age-groups. It was associated with male gender, pulse pressure, obesity and heart rate. In hypertensives, AS related to pulse pressure and inversely to age. Stiffness defined by 10 m/s is determined by higher pulse pressure and higher age. Both definitions of PWV are not interchangeable.