24-hour arterial stiffness monitoring in hypertensive and normotensive patients with bronchial asthma

Background. Cardiovascular disease is one of the major causes of death throughout the world. Early detection of target organ damage is important for more successful cardiovascular prevention and improvement of patient outcomes. Vascular wall is one of the target organs, and its damage is associated with the loss of elastic properties and increase in stiffness. The increased vascular stiffness is an independent predictor of cardiovascular risk. Objective. To evaluate parameters of the 24-hour arterial stiffness monitoring in hypertensive and normotensive patients with bronchial asthma. Design and methods. The study enrolled 100 patients with asthma. The control group included 30 healthy volunteers matched by gender and age. Each patient underwent ambulatory blood pressure and arterial stiffness monitoring using BPLab MnSDP-2 device (Petr Telegin, Russia). Results. Normotensive patients with asthma show higher values of arterial stiffness index and pulse wave velocity in the aorta in comparison with the control group. Comorbid patients with bronchial asthma and hypertension show the highest arterial stiffness. Conclusion. Patients with asthma with and without hypertension demonstrated significantly increased arterial stiffness in comparison with control group.