Central and peripheral arterial stiffness in patients after surgical repair of tetralogy of Fallot: implications for aortic root dilatation.

OBJECTIVES

To test the hypotheses that (1) the central conduit arteries stiffen preferentially over the peripheral conduit arteries in patients with repaired tetralogy of Fallot (ToF); and (2) central arterial stiffening is related to aortic root dilatation.

DESIGN AND PATIENTS: Heart-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV), femoral-ankle PWV, carotid augmentation index and body surface area-adjusted aortic sinotubular dimension were determined in 31 children after ToF repair and compared with those in 31 age-matched controls after left-to-right shunt repair. In addition, the PWVs and augmentation index were related to the sinotubular junction dimension.

SETTINGS: Tertiary paediatric cardiac centre.

RESULTS

Compared with controls, patients had significantly greater heart-femoral PWV (mean 666 (SD 151) v 587 (81) cm/s, p = 0.021) and carotid augmentation index (-14.1 (17.0)% v -25.2 (14.6)%, p = 0.016), whereas the right (888 (202) v 845 (207) cm/s, p = 0.42) and left (918 (227) v 851 (215) cm/s, p = 0.25) femoral-ankle PWVs were similar between the two groups. The sinotubular junction z score of patients was significantly greater than that of controls (4.7 (1.5) v 1.1 (1.4), p < 0.001). Univariate analysis showed that the sinotubular junction z score correlated positively with heart-femoral PWV (r = 0.43, p = 0.001) and carotid augmentation index (r = 0.46, p = 0.001). Multiple linear regression similarly identified heart-femoral PWV (beta = 0.30, p = 0.04) and carotid augmentation index (beta = 0.31, p = 0.04) (model R(2) = 0.26) as significant determinants of sinotubular junction z score.

CONCLUSIONS

The aorta stiffens in patients with repaired ToF, which may contribute to progressive dilatation of the aortic root in the long term.