Relation of Thoracic Aortic Distensibility to Left Ventricular Area (from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis [MESA])

Decreased arterial compliance is an early manifestation of adverse structural and functional changes within the vessel wall. Its correlation with left ventricular (LV) area on computed tomography, a marker of LV remodeling, has not been well demonstrated. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that decreasing aortic compliance and increasing arterial stiffness are independently associated with increased LV area. The study population consisted of 3,540 patients (mean age 61 ± 10 years, 46% men) from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) who underwent aortic distensibility (AD) assessment on magnetic resonance imaging and LV area measurement on computed tomography (adjusted to body surface area). Multivariate logistic regression was performed to assess the association between body surface area–normalized LV area >75th percentile and AD after adjusting for baseline clinical, historical, and imaging covariates. Mean LV area index was 2,153 cm2, and mean AD was 1.84 × 103 mm Hg−1. Subjects in the lowest AD quartile were older, with higher prevalence rates of hypertension, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia (p <0.05 for all comparisons). Using multivariate linear regression adjusting for demographics, traditional risk factors, coronary artery calcium, and C-reactive protein, each SD decrease was associated with an 18-cm2 increase in LV area. In addition, decreasing AD quartiles were independently associated with increasing LV area index, defined as >75th percentile. In conclusion, in this multiethnic cohort, reduced AD was associated with increased LV area. Longitudinal studies are needed to determine if decreased distensibility precedes and directly influences increased LV area.