ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To identify correlations between parameters of vascular stiffness and characteristics of the clinical course of acute cerebrovascular accident (stroke). MATERIAL AND METHODS: Two hundred and seven patients with stroke (mean age 64.6±10.9 years; 115 men) treated in a neurological department of «Municipal Clinical Hospital Br. Bakhrushins of the Health Care Department of Moscow¼ were studied. All patients underwent a standard neurological and clinical-instrumental examination, including assessment of arterial stiffness by sphygmography. Analysis of the data was carried out depending on the severity of stroke and the pathogenetic subtype of stroke. RESULTS: The pathological value of the CAVI was detected in all patients with cerebral infarction. The highest values were noted in patients with an atherothrombotic subtype of stroke. A positive correlation was revealed between CAVI and the age of patients (r=0.57; p=0.0001), left ventricular myocardial mass index (r=0.55; p=0.0001), NIHSS score (r=0.6; p=0.0001) The inverse correlation was found between CAVI and glomerular filtration rate (r= -0.4; p=0.02). CONCLUSIONS: The factors determining the severity of stroke are age, arterial hypertension, type 2 diabetes, carotid atherosclerosis, left ventricular remodeling, and decreased glomerular filtration rate. The CAV and the toe-brachial index, rather than the ankle-brachial index, significantly distinguished patients with ischemic stroke from patients with transient ischemic attack.