Hyperemic velocity tests endothelial dysfunction to predict heart disease
Posted Mar 14 2011 12:00am
Endothelial dysfunction (dysfunction of the cells lining blood vessels), as measured by hyperemic velocity, can predict who is at risk for developing coronary heart disease, according to published research led by UCalgary’s Dr. Todd Anderson and his colleagues at four sites across Canada. By identifying this new marker in patients doctors may be able to intervene early to prevent the progression of heart disease.
“The study has demonstrated that in addition to traditional cardiovascular risk factors, measures of blood vessel function are predictive of who goes on to develop cardiovascular complications,” says Anderson who is the study’s principal investigator, and director of the Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta.
The observational study followed 1574 healthy firefighters over a period of ten years. At the beginning of the study each firefighter had an ultrasound of his brachial artery in the arm to measure blood vessel function and was then followed every six months for the 10 year period. Over the course of the study some of the study participants had cardiovascular events such as heart attacks and this allowed the research team to see what measurements correlated.
“The information obtained by these simple tests improves our ability to detect, among healthy individuals, those who will go on to have vascular events, with more precision and reliability than if we just tallied their traditional risk factors, as most clinicians do now,” says Dr. Francois Charbonneau, a co-investigator and also from the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Medicine and a member of the Libin Institute. “More research is required to see if these tests can be used in the population at large” (Courtesy of EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS).
The study was published in the January 18, 2011 issue of Circulation, a journal of the American Heart Association (123: 163 - 169).
Coronary artery diseases remain a major cause of death and disability in North America and can lead to heart attacks and congestive heart failure.
The abstract of the study is available online free here:
Reference: Todd J. Anderson, et al. Circulation. 2011;123:163-169.
doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.110.953653
Endothelial dysfunction (dysfunction of the cells lining blood vessels), as measured by hyperemic velocity, can predict who is at risk for developing coronary heart disease, according to published research led by UCalgary’s Dr. Todd Anderson and his colleagues at four sites across Canada. By identifying this new marker in patients doctors may be able to intervene early to prevent the progression of heart disease.
“The study has demonstrated that in addition to traditional cardiovascular risk factors, measures of blood vessel function are predictive of who goes on to develop cardiovascular complications,” says Anderson who is the study’s principal investigator, and director of the Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta.
The observational study followed 1574 healthy firefighters over a period of ten years. At the beginning of the study each firefighter had an ultrasound of his brachial artery in the arm to measure blood vessel function and was then followed every six months for the 10 year period. Over the course of the study some of the study participants had cardiovascular events such as heart attacks and this allowed the research team to see what measurements correlated.
“The information obtained by these simple tests improves our ability to detect, among healthy individuals, those who will go on to have vascular events, with more precision and reliability than if we just tallied their traditional risk factors, as most clinicians do now,” says Dr. Francois Charbonneau, a co-investigator and also from the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Medicine and a member of the Libin Institute. “More research is required to see if these tests can be used in the population at large” (Courtesy of EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS).
The study was published in the January 18, 2011 issue of Circulation, a journal of the American Heart Association (123: 163 - 169).
Coronary artery diseases remain a major cause of death and disability in North America and can lead to heart attacks and congestive heart failure.
The abstract of the study is available online free here:
Reference: Todd J. Anderson, et al. Circulation. 2011;123:163-169.
doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.110.953653