Purpose: To evaluate the importance of carotid-radial PWV (PWV-cr) dynamics in cuff occlusion test in heart, vessels and kidneys damage assessment in patients with essential arterial hypertension (AH).

Methods: 204 patients with AH (mean age 72.6 ± 7.2 years) were examined. PWV-cr (“PulseTracePWV”, Great Britain) was measured before and after a 5-min forearm cuff occlusion. According to the results of the occlusion test the patients formed two subgroups, in one of which PWV-cr decreased (n=122), while in the second group (n=82) it did not change or increased. The cases of previous myocardial infarction (MI) were taken into account. Ankle-brachial index (ABI) and glomerular filtration rate (GFR) by MDRD formula were revealed. For criteria of peripheral artery disease (PAD) we used the ABI value<1.0, while for chronic kidney disease (CKD) it was GFR/1.73 m²<60 ml/min. The incidence of previous MI, PAD and CKD were compared in both subgroups. To estimate relationships we used logistic regression analysis.

Results: The two subgroups of patients were similar in age, gender and PAD incidence. Previous MI and CKD occurred more often in the second subgroup compared with the first (28.9% vs. 13.9%, χ²=6.9, р=0.009 and 65.4% vs. 43.7%, χ²=9.1, р=0.003, respectively). Logistic regression analysis also proved that the lack of PWV-cr fall in occlusion test is associated with more frequent MI (OR=2.6, p=0.008) and CKD (OR=2.4, p=0.002) development.

Conclusion: PWV-cr dynamics in occlusion test reflecting peripheral arteries reactivity is associated with coronary heart and chronic kidney diseases occurrence and thus can have prognostic significance for target-organs affection.