The value of endothelial function of brachial artery in predicting coronary artery disease in elderly patients / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the value of endothelial function of brachial artery in predicting coronary artery disease in elderly patients. Methods Flow-mediated vasodilation (FMD)and nitroglycerin mediated dilation (NMD) were measured by high-frequency ultrasound in 98 patients with coronary artery disease and 37 controls. All the subjects were diagnosed by coronary arteriography. They were divided into coronary artery blockages ＜ 50% subgroup, 50%-75%subgroup, ＞75% subgroup or coronary blockages in 0, 1, 2, 3 branch (es) subgroups. The correlations between FMD or NMD and the pathological extent or branches of coronary artery were studied and the predictive value of FMD and NMD were analyzed with ROC curve. Results In coronary artery disease group, FMD and NMD were significantly decreased as compared with the control group. They were closely related with coronary artery disease (r= -0. 54, -0. 52, P＜0.01), and were weakly correlated with severity and range of coronary arterial lesion (P＜0. 01).With ROC curve analysis, FMD and NMD could be used to predict coronary artery disease.Conclusions Endothelial function can be used as an index to predict coronary artery disease.