Preeclampsia Is Associated with Increased Central Aortic Pressure, Elastic Arteries Stiffness and Wave Reflections, and Resting and Recruitable Endothelial Dysfunction

Figure 1

Schema of the instrumental approach employed to assess noninvasive arterial structure and function in basal and post-VRT conditions. Employed techniques are as follows: carotid-to-femoral and carotid-to-radial PWV (applanation tonometry and mechanography), PWA (applanation tonometry), arterial diameters and CIMT (B-Mode ultrasound), and blood flow velocities (Doppler ultrasound). PWA: pulse wave analysis; PWV: pulse wave velocity; AP: augmentation pressure; , : time delay between R wave from ECG and carotid foot wave and femoral/radial foot wave, respectively; : time delay between carotid foot wave and femoral/radial foot wave; cSBP/pSBP: central/peripheral systolic blood pressure; cDBP/pDBP: central/peripheral diastolic blood pressure; DD: diastolic diameter; SD: systolic diameter; CIMT: carotid intima-media thickness; : acoustic impedance; C-F and C-R : carotid-to-femoral and carotid-to-radial distance, respectively.