Higashi Yukihito
Department of Regenerative Medicine, Research Institute for Radiation Biology and Medicine, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan.
Division of Regeneration and Medicine, Medical Center for Translational and Clinical Research, Hiroshima University Hospital, Hiroshima, Japan.
JACC Asia. 2024 Nov 19;4(12):898-911. doi: 10.1016/j.jacasi.2024.09.015. eCollection 2024 Dec.
Vascular function is impaired by conditions such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, and diabetes as well as coronary risk factors including age, smoking, obesity, menopause and physical inactivity. Measurement of vascular function is useful not only for assessment of atherosclerosis itself but also in many other aspects such as understanding the pathophysiology, assessing treatment efficacy, and predicting prognosis of cardiovascular events. It is therefore important to accurately assess the extent of vascular function. A variety of vascular function assessments are currently used in clinical practice, including flow-mediated vasodilation, reactive hyperemia index, strain-gauge pulse plethysmographs, pulse wave velocity, augmentation index, intima media thickness, and chemical biomarkers. However, it is also true that there is no gold standard method for measuring vascular function in humans. To use vascular function effectively, it is necessary to understand the measurement-related pitfalls.
血管功能会因高血压、血脂异常、糖尿病等病症以及年龄、吸烟、肥胖、更年期和缺乏运动等冠心病危险因素而受损。血管功能的测量不仅有助于评估动脉粥样硬化本身，还在许多其他方面具有重要意义，例如了解病理生理学、评估治疗效果以及预测心血管事件的预后。因此，准确评估血管功能的程度非常重要。目前临床实践中使用了多种血管功能评估方法，包括血流介导的血管舒张、反应性充血指数、应变计脉搏容积描记法、脉搏波速度、增强指数、内膜中层厚度和化学生物标志物。然而，确实不存在用于测量人体血管功能的金标准方法。为了有效地利用血管功能，有必要了解与测量相关的陷阱。
