Journal «Angiology and Vascular Surgery» • 

2009 • VOLUME 15 • №1

STRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL ALTERATIONS IN THE ARTERIAL WALL AND CLINICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF NONSPECIFIC AORTOARTERITIS

Pokrovskii A.V., Kuntsevich G.I., Zotikov E.A., Burtseva E.A., Kulbak V.A.
State Federal Facility A. V. Vishnevsky Institute of Surgery under the «Federal Agency for High Technological Medical Care»,
Moscow, Russia

The authors studied structural and functional properties of the arterial wall, also assessing elastic properties of the common femoral artery and the brachial artery flow-dependent dilatation (FDD) index in a total of thirty-six patients presenting with nonspecific aortoarteritis (NAA). The overwhelming majority of the patients, i.e., twenty-four (89%), showed a statistically significant decrease in the FDD as compared with the control-group patients (P<0.05). We revealed a statistically reliable (p=0.0005) inverse correlation between the level of systolic arterial pressure and an increase in the rigidity index of the common femoral artery wall. Also determined was a correlation of the femoral artery wall rigidity (systolic AP equalling 140 mm Hg and higher) and the brachial artery flow-dependent dilatation index (r=-0.61).

All the patients suffering from non-specific aortoarteritis were diagnosed as having a decrease in the elasticity values, accompanied by an increase in systolic arterial pressure (r=0.36; P=0.07). Comparing the level of systolic arterial pressure with the values of the distensibility coefficient and compliance coefficient revealed a weak inverse correlation (r=-0.28 and 0.21, respectively). Evaluating the impact of duration of the disease on the distensibility coefficient, compliance coefficient and the rigidity index made it possible to detect a statistically significant (P=0.0039) direct correlation between the rigidity index and the duration of non-specific aortoarteritis. To a leaser degree, the duration of the inflammatory process influenced the distensibility coefficient and compliance coefficient (r=-0.28; r=-0.30, respectively; P=0.06).

KEY WORDS: non-specific aortoarteritis, flow-dependent vasodilatation of the brachial artery, compliance coefficient, distensibility coefficient, rigidity index.

P. 7-16

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