الفهرس 
Introduction and Aim of the Work.Only 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Aim of the work
The aim of our study is to study the correlation between the ambulatory arterial stiffness index as a measure of arterial stiffness with the early and late target organ damage.
Summary and conclusion
The current study was carried out in the department of cardiology, El-Minya University during the period from March 2006 to December 2007. This study includes 70 subjects, divided into two groups:
*Group 1: includes 50 hypertensive subjects, further this group classified according to the degree of target organ damage.
*Group 2: includes 20 normotensive subjects considered as a control group.
As regard the Ambulatory Arterial Stiffness Index (AASI):
We evaluated the arterial stiffness through measuring the AASI calculated as one minus the regression slope of the diastolic on the systolic blood pressure obtained from 24 hour blood pressure monitoring, we did not force the regression line through the intercept zero.
We found that the AASI was significantly higher in females than males, higher in hypertensive than normotensive subjects, increasing with age, and the association with the previous variables found to be significant.
Also there was a negative association between the AASI and body height but the association not reached statistical significance.
Also the AASI found to be significantly correlated with the subclinical and target organ damage, namely increased left ventricular mass index detected by echocardiography, increased common carotid artery intima media thickness, carotid plaque detected by B mood ultrasonography on the carotid arteries, microalbuminuria, and fundus retinopathy.
Furthermore that relation between the AASI and the degree of subclinical organ damage was positive and graded i.e. the higher the degree of subclinical organ damage involvement the higher the value of the AASI.
As regard the vasodilator capacity:
We evaluated the vasodilator capacity of the brachial artery through testing the flow-mediated and Glceryl trinitrate-mediated dilatation. And we found a significantly decreased endothelial-dependant vasodilatation in the hypertensive than the normotensive group, the endothelial dependant flow mediated dilatation was significantly correlated with the subject age.
Also the endothelial dependant flow mediated dilatation was significant negatively correlated with the subclinical and target organ damage, namely increased left ventricular mass index, increased common carotid artery intima media thickness, carotid plaque, and fundus retinopathy.
As regard the correlation between the AASI and endothelial dysfunction:
The correlation between the AASI and the endothelial dependant flow mediated dilatation found to be significantly negative and this found in the hypertensive group as well as in the healthy control group.
As regard the correlations of the microalbuminuria:
The microalbuminuria was significantly correlated with the other subclinical organ damage, namely increased left ventricular mass index and increased carotid intima media thickness.