| Summary: | Background: High aortic blood pressure (BP) predicts clinical outcomes beyond peripheral BP. Aortic BP may differ according to level of systolic BP (SBP)-amplification but these differences cannot be identified using current non-invasive BP measurement methods. In this study, we sought to determine if high intra-arterial aortic BP could be detected via reservoir-excess pressure characteristics.
Methods: Standard cuff BP, SphygmoCor-derived central BP (CBP), and intra-arterial aortic and brachial waveforms were recorded in 160 participants (61 ± 11 years, 68% male) during coronary angiography. SBP-amplification was defined as ≥5 mmHg increase in SBP across the aortic-to-brachial arteries, whereas no SBP-amplification was defined as 0.20 both). Aortic, but not brachial, reservoir pressure was significantly higher in participants with no SBP-amplification (2506 ± 662 versus 2239 ± 640 Pa/s, p = 0.011). This pattern was also observed for aortic excess pressure (718 ± 304 versus 624 ± 293 Pa/s, p = 0.049) and aortic diastolic rate constant (0.021 ± 0.08 versus 0.025 ± 0.09 s−1, p = 0.002). All differences remained after adjustment for age, sex and intra-arterial aortic SBP.
Conclusions: Reservoir-excess pressure characteristics help identify people with high intra-arterial aortic BP that are otherwise missed using cuff BP or SphygmoCor-derived CBP. Thus, analysis of BP waveforms using reservoir-excess pressure characteristics could be used to refine accuracy of BP measurement.
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