French doctors have determined that the chance of a person with high blood pressure having a heart attack or other "coronary event" can be accurately predicted by measuring the stiffness of the aorta, the body’s main artery.

In this recent study, doctors studied more than 1,000 people with hypertension but without any signs of coronary heart disease. They determined the stiffness of the arteries by measuring the carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity, or how long it takes for a pulse beat to travel down the aorta from the neck to the thigh. They followed up with the patients after five or six years.

They found that those patients who had the stiffest arteries were more likely to have had a heart attack (fatal or non-fatal) or to have needed an angioplasty or other revascularization procedure. They were also more likely to have suffered from angina or to have had another cardiovascular event.

The authors point out that their data provides the first direct evidence that aortic stiffness is an independent predictor of primary coronary events in patients with hypertension. This procedure will give doctors one more tool to use in assessing their patients' risks and providing the most effective treatment.

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Source:  Boutouyrie P, Tropeano AI, Asmar R, et al. Aortic stiffness is an independent predictor of primary coronary events in hypertensive patients. Hypertension, January 2002;39:10. (Abs.)