Cardiovascular assessments were carried out with the SphygmoCor® XCEL device (AtCor Medical, Sydney, Australia). Participants initially rested for five minutes in a supine position. Brachial systolic, diastolic, and pulse pressures were then measured via a cuff affixed to the upper left arm. Central (aortic) blood pressures were also automatically derived by the device during this process. For greater accuracy measurements were taken three times. The first was discarded, as this had the greatest chance of being artificially elevated due to apprehension and ‘white-coat syndrome’, and the final results were taken as the average of the second and third measurements.
To derive the carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (CFPWV) measure of aortic stiffness, a cuff was placed high on the left leg to capture the femoral pulse waveform, while the carotid waveform was captured using a hand-held tonometer. The distance between these two sites was measured and then divided by the pulse transit time to calculate the CFPWV. This is considered the ‘gold standard’ method of central arterial stiffness assessment [37 (link)].
To derive the carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (CFPWV) measure of aortic stiffness, a cuff was placed high on the left leg to capture the femoral pulse waveform, while the carotid waveform was captured using a hand-held tonometer. The distance between these two sites was measured and then divided by the pulse transit time to calculate the CFPWV. This is considered the ‘gold standard’ method of central arterial stiffness assessment [37 (link)].
