Application of augmentation index in health control of hypertension patients

Objective To investigate the correlation of Augmentation Index（AI）with diastolic cardiac and renal function in patients with hypertension and the role of AI in health control of hypertension patients. Methods AI and prosome brain natriuretic peptide（proBNP）levels were measured in 105 hypertension patients with their renal and cardiac functions determined by echocardiography.The correlation between these parameters was analyzed.Receiver operating characteristic（ROC）curves were plotted. Results The AI level was significantly elevated in patients with a higher proBNP level and relatively elevated in patients with renal dysfunction,the correlation coefficient for AI and proBNP was 0.369 7（P=0.003）.The creatinine clearance rate was negatively correlated with AI level and their correlation coefficient was-0.348（P＜0.05）.ROC curves showed that the maximal clinical value of AI for the diagnosis of cardiac diastolic dysfunction was 85.5% with a sensitivity of 0.909 and a specificity of 0.889. Conclusion Changes in radial AI level can reflect the corresponding changes in cardiac diastolic and renal function in patients with hypertension,suggesting that AI can be used as a non-invasive dynamic indicator for the health control of hypertension patients during follow-up.