Assessment of arterial stiffness in patients with metabolic syndrome in Ecuador: A cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Metabolic syndrome increases cardiovascular risk, and causes damage to the vascular wall. Through this mechanism, it might increase arterial rigidity, leading to further complications and heart strain. The use of a device that measures arterial rigidity can help determine if metabolic syndrome is related to a higher vascular stiffness and changes in estimated arterial age.

METHODOLOGY: Cross-sectional study at Luis Vernaza hospital of Guayaquil, Ecuador. Inpatients and outpatients from the Department of Cardiology with a full blood panel and echocardiogram were included. We used the IDF criteria to diagnose metabolic syndrome and measured arterial rigidity parameters in all of them, including augmentation indexes, central blood pressure, pulse wave velocity and arterial age.

RESULTS: 95 patients were included for analysis, 44.2% were females and 55.8% were males. Mean age was 61.7 years (±13.1). Metabolic syndrome was diagnosed in 49.5% of our patients and it was significantly more prevalent in women. We found significant differences in PWV, augmentation indexes, and peripheral and central blood pressure between metabolic and non-metabolic syndrome patients. There was a non-significant relationship between estimated arterial age and metabolic syndrome (p=0.32).

CONCLUSION: Patients with metabolic syndrome have an increased arterial rigidity. This, added to the high prevalence of the disease we found in our sample, shows the high cardiovascular risk these patients are at. A multidisciplinary approach to management is needed, along with patient collaboration. The introduction of these devices to measure arterial stiffness in developing countries can improve diagnosis and therapy of patients with cardio-metabolic conditions.