Abstract
Recently the aortic pulse wave velocity measurement (PWV) is used as an index of generalized arterioscleosis because the arteriosclerosis of many organs is said to be preceded by the aortic arteriosclerosis.
But in some cases, patients with the calcified aorta in the X-ray films of the chest or of the abdomen and with high PWV happened to have no apparent arteriosclerotic organ disease. This fact implies that PWV has some limitations and other methods should be used together, although this method is expediently valuable.
We found a gross correlation between PWV and the thickness of the aortic valve measured during diastole with M-mode echocardiography (r=0.44, p<.0.01).
The relationship was not so clear between PWV and the ratio of the area of the aortic wall and valves and that of the aortic lumen (T/L ratio) measured using two-dimensional echocardiography (r=0.39, p0.05).
There was no correlation between the thickness of the aortic valves and the aortic wall measured with M-mode echocardiography (r=0.15).
No correlation was found between PWV and the aortic index (%) measured in the chest roentgenogram (r=0.10).
The aortic index (mm) was correlated with the aortic root dimension measured with M-mode echocardiography (r=0.49).
These findings suggest that the measurement of the aortic valve with M-mode echocardiography can be used to assess the degree of arteriosclerosis. Furthermore, concomitant use of PWV can estimate the degree of patient's arteriosclerosis more accurately with echocardiography.
On the occasion of the echocardiographic examination for other purposes, we can incidentally assess the degree of patient's arteriosclerosis.
