Assessment of Early Vascular Aging Ambulatory Score (EVAAs): A Large Population-based External Validation Study

Title:Assessment of Early Vascular Aging Ambulatory Score (EVAAs): A Large Population-based External Validation Study

Volume: 22

Author(s): Christina Antza, Victoria Potoupni, Evangelos Akrivos, Stella Stabouli and Vasilios Kotsis*

Affiliation:

• 3 rd Department of Internal Medicine, Aristotle University, Hypertension-24h ambulatory blood pressure monitoring center, Papageorgiou Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece

Abstract:

Background: Pulse Wave Velocity (PWV) remains the gold-standard method to assess Early Vascular Aging (EVA) defined by arterial stiffness. However, its high cost, time-consuming process, and need for qualified medical staff shows the importance of identifying alternative methods for the EVA evaluation.

Objective: In order to simplify the process of assessing patients' EVA, we recently developed the Early Vascular Aging Ambulatory score (EVAAs), a simple tool to predict the risk of EVA. The aim of the present study was the external validation of EVAAs in an independent population.

Methods: Eight hundred seventy-nine (46.3% men) patients who were referred to our Hypertension ESH Excellence Center were included in this study. The mean age was 46.43 ± 22.87 years. EVA was evaluated in two different ways. The first assessment included c-f PWV values, whereas the second one included EVAAs without the direct measurement of carotid-femoral PWV.

Results: The null hypothesis was that the prediction of EVA based on EVAAs does not present any statistically significant difference compared to the prediction based on the calculation from c-f PWV. Mean squared error (MSE) was used for the assessment of the null hypothesis, which was found to be 0.40. The results revealed that the EVAAs show the probability of EVA with 0.98 sensitivity and 0.75 specificity. The EVAAs present 95% positive predictive value and 92% negative predictive value.

Conclusion: Our study revealed that EVAAs could be as reliable as the carotid-femoral PWV to identify patients with EVA. Hence, we hope that EVAAs will be a useful tool in clinical practice.

Cite this article as:

Antza Christina, Potoupni Victoria, Akrivos Evangelos, Stabouli Stella and Kotsis Vasilios*, Assessment of Early Vascular Aging Ambulatory Score (EVAAs): A Large Population-based External Validation Study, Current Vascular Pharmacology 2024; 22 () . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/0115701611299635240708045352