AUTHOR=Pereira María M. , Torrado Juan , Sosa Claudio , Diaz Alejandro , Bia Daniel , Zócalo Yanina 

TITLE=Center-To-Periphery Arterial Stiffness Gradient Is Attenuated and/or Reversed in Pregnancy-Associated Hypertension

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine

VOLUME=Volume 8 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cardiovascular-medicine/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2021.766723

DOI=10.3389/fcvm.2021.766723

ISSN=2297-055X

ABSTRACT=Background: Non-pregnant women have a progressive increase in the arterial stiffness from central to peripheral arteries (´stiffness gradient´ [SG]), which is of physiologic importance since excessive pulsatility is filtered by the creation of wave reflections. If the aorta gets stiff with minimal or no change in the periphery, the SG is dissipated transmitting pressure disturbances to the microcirculation. It remains unknown the status of the SG in both women with healthy pregnancies (HP) and complicated by pregnancy-associated hypertension (PAH). Objective: To determine whether HP and PAH are associated with changes in SG. Secondarily, we aim at identifying potential differences between the subgroups of PAH (preeclampsia and gestational hypertension). Methods: HP (n=10), PAH (n=16), and healthy non-pregnant (NP) women (n=401, to be matched for age, and cardiovascular risk with the pregnant women) were included. Carotid-to-femoral (cfPWV) and carotid-to-radial pulse wave velocity (crPWV), carotid (CCA) and brachial artery (BA) diameters and elastic modulus (EM), and regional (cfPWV/crPWV or ´PWV ratio") and local (CCA EM/BA EM, or ´EM Ratio´) SG were quantified. Results: HP showed no changes in PWV ratio compared with NP, in the presence of significantly lower cfPWVand crPWV. HP exhibited higher arterial diameters and lower CCA EM/BA EM compared to NP, without differences with PAH.