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AGREEMENT BETWEEN TWO MEASURES OF CEREBRAL ARTERIAL STIFFNESS AS MEASURED WITH TRANSCRANIAL DOPPLER

Abstract

Alexander Pomeroy, Madeline Rheault, Jacklyn Rojas, Craig Paterson, Lee Stoner, FACSM. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC.

PURPOSE: Cerebral arterial stiffness is thought to be an indicator of stroke risk. Currently, multiple non-invasive techniques for assessing the stiffness of the cerebral arteries exist. While recent studies have focused on carotid-cerebral pulse wave velocity (ccPWV), this technique requires a high amount of operator training and cannot be measured continuously. One technique that addresses these problems is heart-cerebral pulse wave velocity (hcPWV). However, the agreement between hcPWV and ccPWV is unknown. This study aims to determine the agreement between heart-cerebral artery pulse wave velocity (hcPWV) and carotid-cerebral pulse wave velocity (ccPWV). METHODS: 5 healthy, young adults (26.6 ± 5.9 years old, 100% female) were recruited. hcPWV was assessed using an electrocardiogram and a transcranial doppler (TCD), and ccPWV was measured using only TCD. Participants were moved through a 3-posture test (supine, semi-recumbent, and seated) with measurements taken after a 5-minute rest in each posture. Agreement between the two measures was determined by calculating concordance correlation coefficients (CCCs) using custom R code. RESULTS: Our preliminary analysis generated an overall CCC of 0.128, indicating poor agreement between hmPWV and ccPWV. CONCLUSIONS: The current findings indicate that there is poor agreement between hmPWV and ccPWV. However, these results are underpowered, and may change as the full sample size is recruited (40 participants). Future results may provide evidence for researchers to be able to compare measurements of hcPWV and ccPWV in previous literature, and provide options for future investigations of cerebral arterial stiffness.

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