Vascular medicine
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Association of improvement of brachial artery flow-mediated vasodilation with cardiovascular events.
The aim of this pilot study was to test the prognostic value of serial measurements of peripheral endothelial function, assessed by brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD), in patients with angiographically proven coronary artery disease. In 68 patients, FMD was measured on the day after coronary angiography and again after a mean of 14 +/- 12 months. Patients were divided into two groups: absolute improvement in FMD > or = 3% (FMD-improver = FMD-i) and < 3% (FMD-non-improver = FMD-ni). ⋯ In Kaplan-Meier analysis, a trend towards a better outcome in patients with improved FMD was found using the log-rank test (p = 0.08). The single baseline FMD showed no relationship with late cardiovascular events. Thus, 'delta-FMD' may be more closely related to prognosis than a single FMD measurement.