Indici di funzione endoteliale. Dall’FMD morfologico all’FMD emodinamico attraverso i parametri di rigidità vascolare: metodi a confronto

We performed flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) and “echo-tracking” in patients with cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF) and/or carotid (CaATS) and coronary atherosclerosis (CoATS); in addition, we investigated whether these parameters may be related to echocardiographic indexes. We enrolled 10 patients with CVRF (A: 54.7±3.7), 11 with CaATS (B: 58.5±6.4), 14 with CoATS (C: 65.5±6.9). We calculated: FMD, variation of resistance index (RI), recovery time (RT), pulse wave velocity (PWV), beta and echocardiographic parameters. FMD was lower in B and C than A (5.7±4.4 and 2.6±4.6 vs 14.1±1.6, p<0.001). RI, PWV and beta were comparable between groups; RT was longer in C than A (198.1±160.2 vs 55.5±29.2, p=0.026). FMD was predictor of CoATS (OR 0.789, 0.666-0.936 p=0.006) with a cut-off of 4.55%. Furthermore, FMD was related to E/E’ (r=-0.502 p=0.004) and LV systolic longitudinal function (r=0.505 p=0.004). FMD and, minorly, RT are accurate tools in the detection of more advanced atherosclerotic disease.