Indirect, noninvasive evaluation of pressure wave transmission in essential hypertension.

Blood pressure, carotid-femoral and brachioradial pulse wave velocities were measured in 123 male subjects: 32 normal subjects and 91 age-matched patients with sustained essential hypertension. The ratio between brachioradial (BR) and carotid-femoral (CF) pulse wave velocities was used as a marker of pressure wave amplitude changes from the aorta to the brachial artery. The ratio was similar in normotensive and hypertensive subjects and decreased with age to the same extent in both populations. In older subjects, the decrease in the ratio indicated that the amplitude of pulse pressure was quite similar in the aorta and the brachial artery whether the subjects were normotensives or hypertensives. The study provided evidence that adaptive changes occur in the arterial (aortic) wall in hypertension, for the effects of age on pressure wave transmission are similar in normal subjects and hypertensive patients. Such findings may be of prime importance in understanding the brachial blood pressure readings of patients with hypertension.