Ambulatory arterial stiffness index in chronic kidney disease stage 2–5. Reproducibility and relationship with pulse wave parameters and kidney function

Background. Arterial stiffnesscontributes to the increased cardiovascular risk in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Reproducible and easily obtainable indices of arterial stiffnessare needed in order to monitor therapeutic strategies. The ambulatory arterial stiffnessindex (AASI) has been proposed as such a marker. The present study investigated the day-to-day reproducibility of AASI in CKD stage 2–5 and its relationship with other markers of arterial stiffnessas well as with kidney function. Methods. Eighty-three patients (29% female, median age 62 years) were studied by 24 h ambulatory blood pressuremonitoring (ABPM), aortic pulse wave velocity(aPWV), augmentation index (AIx) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) at a median interval of 7 days. Individual AASIs were calculated from 24 h ABPMs as 1 minus the regression slope of diastolic blood pressure over systolic blood pressure. Results. Mean AASI, aPWV, AIx and 24 h pulse pressure(PP) were similar on repeated measurements. ...