Vnitr Lek 2019, 65(12):770-774 | DOI: 10.36290/vnl.2019.134

Vascular age

Ondřej Petrák, Richard Češka^*

III. interní klinika - klinika endokrinologie a metabolizmu 1. LF UK a VFN v Praze

Age can be evaluated according to many criteria. Of course the objective measure is the calendar age which may differ from the biological age. The biological age more or less correlates with the vascular age. The concept of vascular age is based on the statement that "An individual is as old as his blood vessels". The process of vascular aging already starts in childhood. Arterial aging may essentially be viewed from two standpoints. First, it involves stiffening of arteries and loss of their elasticity; second, degenerative changes and formation of atherosclerotic plaques occur, being the cause of ischemia, especially in case of the development of atherothrombosis. Both these processes can be monitored: The change of elasticity (arteriosclerosis) mainly by examination of pulse wave velocity (PWV), atherosclerosis then primarily with non-invasive methods, ultrasound or CT angiography examination. From the clinical point of view it is particularly important whether we can influence vascular age in some way. Evidence is available now that atherosclerosis can be affected by hypolipidemic treatment, arteriosclerosis then in particular by ACE inhibitors. The aforementioned possibility of influencing vascular age brings us to another problem, which is compliance of patients. With regard to that it is good that in a situation where we have two drugs affecting vascular age, we can use their fixed combination. It is available as a combination of atorvastatin and perindopril.

Keywords: ACE inhibitors; atorvastatin; CT angiography; dyslipidemia; hypertension; intima media thickness (IMT); perindopril; pulse wave velocity (PWV); statins; vascular age

Received: October 24, 2019; Accepted: November 12, 2019; Published: December 1, 2019  Show citation