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Background: Increased aortic stiffness markers - aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV) and augmentation index (AIx) - are powerful predictors of survival in ESRD patients - well-recognized for the high prevalence of coronary artery disease (CAD) and unusually high PWV and AIx. Recently, decreased aortic compliance has been shown to be predictive of primary coronary events in hypertensive patients with normal renal function. We aimed to explore relationships between arterial stiffness and CAD in cohorts of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD)., Methods and Results: 46 patients with chronic kidney disease (33 males, aged 55.7+/- 13.2 years, 20 on dialysis, 18 post renal transplantation, and 8 with glomerular filtration rate (GFR) between 10 and 25 ml/min) underwent coronary angiography for the assessment of CAD. PWV and aortic AIx were determined from pulse waveform analysis of arterial waveforms recorded by applanation tonometry using a SphygmoCortm device. The atherosclerosis burden score was calculated by adding the percentage luminal reduction of the most severe lesion in each artery. Patients with normal angiograms had significantly less arterial stiffness (as reflected by both a lower PWV=8.42+/-1.53 m/s and a lower AIx=17.9+/-5.55 %) compared with the 35 subjects with evidence of obstructive coronary disease at angiography (PWV=9.21+/-1.15 m/s and AIx=23.4+/-5.4 %, P<0.05 for both). Moreover, as more coronary vessels were affected, PWV and AIx increased proportionally. Based on receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve analysis mean PWV levels showed an optimal cut-off point at 8.35 m/s (sensitivity=0.77; specificity=0.60), while mean AIx levels showed an optimal cut-off point at 17% (sensitivity=0.87; specificity=0.70). There was a statistically significant linear relationship between the atherosclerosis burden and both measures of arterial stiffness: PWV (r=0.31, p=0.007) and AIx (r=0.46, p=0.003). Independent predictors for the arterial stiffness parameters in this CKD population (multiple stepwise regression analysis) were age (r=0.69 for PWV and r=0.62 for AIx), and mean arterial pressure (MAP) (for AIx, p<0.0001)., Conclusion: This study provides the first direct evidence in a cross-sectional investigation that PWV and AIx are related to the extent of coronary obstruction in CKD patients.

The article discusses a study on whether myocardial blood flow (MBF) after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is systematically underestimated by comparing resting MBF in grafted versus ungrafted segments after revascularization and segments before and after revascularization. The study population consisted of patients with left main coronary artery disease referred for elective CABG. It suggests that absolute quantification with cardiovascular magnetic resonance does not give rise to systematic underestimation of MFV in graft-subtended territories.

The article presents a study which characterizes the relationship between regional oxygenation and perfusion in normal volunteers and patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). It provides a comparison of blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) and positron emission tomography (PET) for the diagnosis of CAD. It states that the application of BOLD CMR was done at 3 T. Results show that BOLD imaging at 3 T is feasible for CAD diagnosis.