LAUSR

Background: Macrovascular involvement and cardiovascular (CV) risk have not been sufficiently studied in patients with mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD). In particular, the gold standard assessment method of aortic stiffness carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) (1) has never been evaluated in patients with this disease. Objectives: Aims of the present study were to examine cfPWV in MCTD and to evaluate its associations with MCTD associated parameters and traditional CV risk factors. Methods: cfPWV measurements were performed in 43 MCTD patients and 107 healthy controls. The difference between cfPWV in the two groups was statistically examined and subsequently controlled for the effect of possible confounding factors. Association of cfPWV with MCTD associated organ involvement, routine laboratory parameters and immunoserological markers was also evaluated. Finally, relationship of cfPWV with medications and traditional CV risk factors was examined. Results: Adjusted statistical analyses for confounding factors showed significantly higher cfPWV values in MCTD patients in comparison to controls (padj <0.001). cfPWV correlated in both the patients and the control group significantly with age (rho=0.69, p<0.001 and rho=0.67, p<0.001 respectively), diastolic arterial pressure (p adj =0.024 and p adj =0.032 respectively) and mean arterial pressure (rho=0.44, p=0.004 and rho=0.49, p<0.001 respectively). Moreover, cfPWV correlated in the control group with systolic arterial pressure (padj <0.001) (Fig. 1). Higher cfPWV values could be documented in the subset of MCTD patients without lung involvement (p=0.049). Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first study to show that patients with MCTD have significantly higher aortic stiffness and thus CV risk in comparison to controls. Except the disease itself, age and blood pressure were the main predictors of cfPWV. References [1] Bortel LM Van, Laurent S, Boutouyrie P, et al. Expert consensus document on the measurement of aortic stiffness in daily practice using carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity. [2] J Hypertens2012; 30: 445–448. Disclosure of interests: Konstantinos Triantafyllias: None declared, Michele De Blasi : None declared, Freya Lütgendorf: None declared, Lorenzo Cavagna: None declared, Marco Stortz: None declared, Julia Weinmann-Menke : None declared, Stavros Konstantinides : None declared, Peter Galle : None declared, andreas Schwarting Grant/research support from: GSK, Pfizer, abbVie, Novartis, Roche, Speakers bureau: GSK, Novartis