Measurement of opening velocity (OV) of the collapsed brachial artery has been suggested as a new noninvasive method of evaluating arteriosclerosis. We therefore examined the relationship between OV and either serum lipids or atherogenic index (AI) in 145 subjects (95 men and 50 women).
Repeated measurements of OV in one day suggested that OV values for individual subjects remained constant. OV was negatively correlated with age (r=-0.49, p<0.01). Although a highly significant correlation between OV and AT or serum lipids was not observed in all subjects, there were negative correlations between OV and AT or serum triglyceride level in subjects aged 60-79 years. In order to examine the effect of AT level on OV, we divided subjects into a high AT (AI≥3.2) group (H, n=56) and normal AI (AI≤2.8) group (N, n=71) based on AT levels from at least 2 separate measurements. OV was lower in the H group than in N (0.52±0.14 vs 0.59±0.12m/sec, p<0.01). Also, the regression line for OV reduction with age had a steeper slope for group H than N (p<0.05).
The results suggest tnat OV measurement is a useful noninvasive method of evaluating arteriosclerosis.
