Towards Engineering Early Vascular Aging as the Biomarker of Metabolic Dysregulations in Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Due to Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Lyfas Study

Abstract

Background and Objective: Repetitive Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) often predisposes CPTSD which affects mental and cardiometabolic health. Early vascular aging (EVA) is the hallmark sign of adverse cardiometabolic health. Smartphone-based cardiovascular optical biomarker (COB) instrumentLyfas captures such risk non-invasively. This study aims to examine two EVA-related COBs such as Arterial stiffness index (ASI) and Vascular aging (VA)in CPTSD and CPTSD with CSA in adults. Method: An IoT-enabled platform is created for the study. Interested visitors enroll and take the CPTSD Check List – Civilian type (PCL-C) self-tests and also fill out an online form related to CSA. The cohorts scoring high for PCL-C encompass Case-I (males and females 189 and 188, respectively)while those having a positive history of CSAcompriseCase-II (males and females 11 and 12, respectively). An equal number of control groups are also considered for each case. All the four groups take Lyfas tests and the COBs are captured from their index finger capillaries using the smartphone’s camera sensor, light, and the technique called arterial photoplethysmography. The EVA-COBs are validated against the ultrasound Doppler and then correlated with the PCL-C scores statistically. Results: The study observes (i) higher anxiety levels in both the genders with the mean SD2/SD1 (anxiety biomarker) in males and females (p-values <0.05), (ii) Lyfas ASI and Doppler’s Acceleration index (AI%) are yielding to each other in males and females, respectively, (iii) High VA in both the genders (p-values <0.05), which are >20, (iv) Mean PCL-C scores of 32.06 and 38 in males and females refer to moderately high CPTSD (p-values <0.05) in the population, (v) risk of EVA in females is twice of males. Conclusions:Lyfas is an assistive biomedical application that can screen and monitor mental health-related cardiometabolic health in the vulnerable population.The VA and ASI are two useful biomarkers. Authors also have linked the biological disorders leading to social aberrations in the CPTSD cases with or without the history of CSA and inferred that CSA further deteriorates the natural coping mechanism of CPTSD.