Arterial Stiffness and Hypertension - Which Comes First?

Arterial hypertension is one of the traditional risk factors involved in the development of cardiovascular events, while arterial stiffness is an independent predictor of cardiovascular disease in patients with hypertension. It seems that the risk factors involved in the pathology of uncontrolled hypertension are similar to those that contribute to the development of arterial stiffness. After evidence showed that arterial stiffness is an independent prognostic factor for the occurrence of cardiovascular events in patients with arterial hypertension, the importance of assessing arterial stiffness was recognized in a document drafted by the European Society of Hypertension in 2007. Many factors, some still insufficiently studied, are involved in the development and worsening of arterial stiffness, especially in patients with certain comorbidities (diabetes, hypertension, chronic kidney disease). The evaluation of pulse wave velocity (PWV) remains the gold standard for non-invasive assessment of arterial stiffness. It seems that changes in terms of lifestyle and drug therapy have some positive effects on improving arterial stiffness, but further studies are needed to prove this concept. Our review aims to highlight the novelty of the mechanisms, the assessment methods, some of the clinical aspects, as well as the therapeutic implications of arterial stiffness, especially in patients with hypertension.

Importance of arterial stiffness in predicting cardiovascular events.

INTRODUCTION: Cardiovascular events represent an important cause of morbidity and mortality in the entire population. Arterial stiffness is currently considered one of the most important risk factors for the development of cardiovascular events. The gold-standard for evaluating arterial stiffness is pulse wave velocity (PWV). Recent studies have demonstrated that PWV is an independent risk factor regarding the development of cardiovascular events, especially in certain categories of patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The development of cardiovascular events was assessed in 174 patients admitted in the Center of Internal Medicine, Fundeni Clinical Institute, between January 2011 - May 2012. Arterial stiffness was evaluated by measuring PWV using the Sphygmocor system (AtCor, Australia), which is based on the principle of applanation tonometry. The patients were monitored for the development of cardiovascular events (ischemic heart disease, heart failure, stroke, acute myocardial infarction) and for death of cardiovascular cause, over a median period of 51.5 months (43-60 months). RESULTS: Of the 174 patients, 81 (46.6%) were women and 93 (53.4%) were men. Mean age was 55.96 years. 93 of the 174 patients had chronic kidney failure in different stages (47.3% in stage V). Regarding PWV in the patient group, we obtained a mean score of 9.382. We observed a significant difference regarding the PWV level only for acute myocardial infarction and death between patients who developed these events and those who did not. CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrates that PWV increase can be positively associated with the occurrence of cardiovascular events, particularly in certain groups of patients.

Pneumoperitoneum--rare complication in end stage renal disease patient on automated peritoneal dialysis.

Peritoneal dialysis (PD) is the first option for patients in end stage renal disease (ESRD). Several complications such as peritonitis, exit-site or tunnels infections are encountered during PD. Other complications such as pain, proteic malnutrition, hyperglycemia, hypertension, cardiac failure are described in patients on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) or APD (automated peritoneal dialysis). Rare complications are incapsulated sclerosing peritonitis, hemoperitoneum or pneumoperitoneum. We present the case of a female patient, 66 years old, on cyclic continuous peritoneal dialysis (APD-CCPD) admitted for pneumoperitoneum developed during a dialysis change from a CCPD schedule, due to an error in the Tenckhoff catheter and peritoneal dialysis manipulation. The treatment consisted in extracting the air during manual peritoneal dialysis changes, with the patient in Trendelenburg position and pressing on the abdominal wall, without any other complications.