Arterial stiffness

Arterial stiffness occurs as a consequence of biological aging, arteriosclerosis and genetic disorders, such as Marfan, Williams, and Ehlers-Danlos syndromes. Inflammation plays a major role in arteriosclerosis and arterial stiffness. Increased arterial stiffness is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events such as myocardial infarction, hypertension, heart failure, and stroke. The World Health Organization identified cardiovascular disease as the leading cause of death globally in 2019.

Degenerative changes that occur with age in the walls of large elastic arteries are thought to contribute to increased stiffening over time, including the disruption of lamellar elastin structures within the wall, possibly due to repeated cycles of mechanical stress; inflammation; changes in arterial collagen proteins, partially as a compensatory mechanism against the loss of arterial elastin and partially due to fibrosis; and crosslinking of adjacent collagen fibers by advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs).