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The relationship between heart-carotid pulse transit time and carotid intima-media thickness in hypertensive patients

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 29, pages 663–668 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

The study aimed to investigate the relationship between heart-carotid pulse transit time and carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) in hypertensive patients, and whether including the pre-ejection period (PEP) in heart-carotid pulse transit time would affect this correlation. A total of 62 hypertensive patients were included in this study. They were divided into the normal CIMT group (n=33, CIMT⩽0.8 mm) and the thickened CIMT group (n=29, CIMT>0.8 mm). The noninvasive ultrasound method was used to measure CIMT, electrocardiogram R-wave-based heart-carotid pulse transit time (rcPTT) and PEP. Aortic valve-carotid artery pulse transit time (acPTT) was calculated by subtracting PEP from rcPTT. Simple linear analysis showed that CIMT was negatively associated with rcPTT and acPTT (r=−0.57, P<0.0001; r=−0.41, P=0.016) in the normal CIMT group as well as in the thickened CIMT group (r=−0.50, P=0.0053; r=−0.59, P=0.001). These relationships were eliminated in the normal CIMT group after adjusting for age, gender, smoking behaviour, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and cholesterol levels. However, rcPTT and acPTT still showed significant correlations with CIMT in the thickened CIMT group. In conclusion, rcPTT and acPTT were associated with CIMT, independent of well-known clinical confounders in thickened CIMT hypertensive patients. Therefore, rcPTT and acPTT might be useful markers for atherosclerosis evaluation.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by the Guangdong Innovation Research Team Fund for Low-cost Health-care Technologies in China, the Key Lab for Health Informatics of Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Enhancing Program of Key Laboratories of Shenzhen City (ZDSY20120617113021359), the National High-tech R&D Program (863 Program, No.2012AA02A603), Shenzhen Development and Reform Commission’s Stroke Screening and Prevention Public Service Platform, the External Cooperation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. GJHZ1212), and Shenzhen Innovation Funding (JCYJ20140414170821190).

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Author notes

  1. C Li, H Xiong and W Wu: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China

    C Li, W Wu, D Wu, W-H Lin, F Miao, H Zhang & Y-T Zhang

  2. Key Laboratory for Health Informatics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China

    C Li, W Wu, D Wu, W-H Lin, F Miao, H Zhang & Y-T Zhang

  3. Departments of Ultrasound, The Second People’s Hospital of Shenzhen, Shenzhen, China

    H Xiong

  4. Cardiac Electrocardiogram Room, The Second People’s Hospital of Shenzhen, Shenzhen, China

    X Tian

  5. Clinical Laboratory, The Second People’s Hospital of Shenzhen, Shenzhen, China

    Y Wang

  6. Institute of Clinical Anatomy, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China

    W Huang

  7. Department of Electronic Engineering, Joint Research Centre for Biomedical Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Y-T Zhang

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  1. C Li
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Correspondence to H Zhang.

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Li, C., Xiong, H., Wu, W. et al. The relationship between heart-carotid pulse transit time and carotid intima-media thickness in hypertensive patients. J Hum Hypertens 29, 663–668 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/jhh.2015.11

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