Investigation of arterial stiffness in mitral annular calcification

Aim: We investigated relation between mitral annular calcification and atherosiclerosis in patients who did not have clear coronary artery diseases.Method: 42 patients with mitral annular calcification and 41 patients without mitral annular calcification, admitted to cardiology out-patient clinic and evaluated with echocardiography, according to study criteria. Arterial stiffness was evaluated in patients with mitral annular calcification detected on echocardiograhic examination.Results: Significant differences between two groups (study and conrtol ) for age, gender, cigaratte smoking, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, obesity, heart rate, diastolic blood pressure, lipid profile (low density lipoprotein-cholesterol, high density lipoprotein-cholesterol, trigliserids and total cholesterol) and drug use. However, systolic blood pressure and pulse pressure measured using sphygmomanometer was found to be significantly higher for patients with mitral annular calcification (p=0,02; p= 0,003, respectively). Average pulse wave velosity values in study group and control group were 12,2±2,3 m/sec and 10,1±1,3 m/sec, respectively (p=0,0001). Mitral annular calcification and diastolic blood pressure of brachial artery were found to be independent determiner for pulse wave velosity via bivariate corelation and multivariate lineer regression analysis (p=0,0001; p= 0,04, respectively).Conclusion: We found that mitral annular calcification, indicator for subclinic atherosiclerosis, was an independent determiner for pulse wave velosity which was considered as gold standart for arterial stiffness. It is consedered that cardiovascular risk may be reduced by impeding developing arterial stiffness with management of atherosclerotic risk factors (hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, smoking) along with detecting mitral annular calcification at early stage. In order to support this idea, more studies, and trials enrolling more sample size are needed.