Objectives: Several disease conditions are associated with an increased risk of vascular events. Direct evaluation of arterial structure and function remains elusive at the clinical level. We now report the results of pulse wave velocity in contrasting diseases.

Patients and Methods: We studied 200 consecutive patients assisted at the out-patient department of a public central hospital: (1) Obesity (OB, n = 60); (2) Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (DM2, n = 60), Sexual Erectile Dysfunction (SED, n = 80). Patients were compared to controls (C, n = 40). Pulse wave velocity was measured between the carotid-radial arteries (CR) and between the carotid-femoral arteries (CF) with a computerized pressure transducer device (Complior ^®).

Results: Compared to controls, values at both sites were significantly increased in every disease condition: CR (m/s): (C) 7.03±1.67; (OB) 8.21±2.08; (DM2) 8.44±3.10; (SED) 9.63±2.10; CF (m/s): (C) 5.87±1.92; (OB) 7.80±2.04; (DM2) 11.31±3.27; (SED) 13.08±4.26. CR and CF PWV were directly and significantly related. Higher CR than CF levels were found only in the C group, with no difference in the OB group, and higher CF than CR levels in DM2 and SED groups (p < 0.05). Body volume was a general significant factor for PWV, across diagnostic groups.

Discussion: Non invasive assessment of arterial stiffness by measuring PWV establishes arterial dysfunction in several pathologic conditions associated with an increased cardiovascular risk, even when this is still a matter of debate, namely OB and SED. Increased arterial stiffness is most marked in larger elastic arteries like the aorta (CF-PWV) and reverses the normal PWV gradient against smaller-muscular arteries (CR-PWV).