Predictive Value of Carotid-femoral Pulse Wave Velocity for Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events and All-cause Mortality in Different Age Groups of a Chinese Community

Objective:To investigate the predictive value of carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity(cf-Pw)for assessing major adverse cardiovascular events(MACE)and all-cause mortality in different age groups of a Chinese community.Methods:This is an observational study which enrolled 1,325 individuals from a community in Beijing from September 2007 to October 2018.They were classified based on age into<65-year-old(n=572)and≥65-year-old(n=753)groups,and on cf-PWV into cf-PWV<12 m/s(n=501)and cf-PWV≥12 m/s(n=824)group.The incidence rates of MACE and all-cause mortality were recorded for both the groups during the follow-up period of 9.5 years.The predictive value of cf-PWV for MACE and all-cause mortality in the 2 age groups was estimated using the Cox proportional hazards regression models.Results:The baseline cf-PWV showed positive correlation with age(r=0.462,P<0.001).During the follow-up period,191 MACE and 84 all-cause mortality cases were recorded in the study population.The incidence rates of MACE(χ^(2)=27.196,P<0.001)and all-cause mortality(χ^(2)=9.473,P=0.002)were significantly higher in subjects with cf-PWV≥12 m/s than in subjects with cf-PWV<12 m/s.Cox proportional hazards regression model analyses demonstrated that cf-PWV was an independent risk factor in the<65-year-old group for MACE(hazard ratio:1.310;95%confidence interval:1.007-1.560;P=0.038)and all-cause mortality(hazard ratio:1.412;95%confidence interval:1.133-1.936;P=0.005)after adjusting for several risk factors.However,both univariate and multivariate analyses demonstrated that cf-PWV was not an independent risk factor for MACE or all-cause mortality in the≥65-year-old group(P>0.05).Conclusion:cf-PWV,a measure of arterial stifness,emerged as an independent risk factor for MACE and all-cause mortality insubjectsbelow65yearsofage.