Could home arterial stiffness index be a novel marker for arterial stiffness in patients with type 2 diabetes?

Recent studies suggested that home arterial stiffness index (HASI) may be a new measure of arterial stiffness. The aim of this study was to investigate whether HASI is more strongly associated with arterial stiffness than is pulse pressure (PP) and thus a more suitable tool than PP for evaluating arterial stiffness in patients with type 2 diabetes. We evaluated the relationship of HASI or PP with pulse wave velocity (PWV) as well as with major cardiovascular risk factors in 332 patients with type 2 diabetes. Furthermore, we compared the area under the receiver-operator characteristic curve (AUC) of HASI or PP for PWV. Morning PP was positively associated with PWV (r=0.303, P<0.0001), while morning HASI was not (r=−0.006, P=0.9063). Multiple regression analysis demonstrated that morning PP (β=0.179, P=0.0210), but not morning HASI (β=−0.040, P=0.5036), was independently associated with PWV. The AUCs (95% confidence interval (CI)) of morning HASI and morning PP for arterial stiffness were 0.510 (0.448–0.573) (P=0.745) and 0.638 (0.578–0.698) (P<0.0001), respectively. The AUC (95% CI) of morning HASI for arterial stiffness was significantly less than that of morning PP (P=0.0005). In conclusion, morning HASI is less correlated with PWV than is morning PP in patients with type 2 diabetes.