Aortic elasticity in patients with ankylosing spondylitis

Objective-Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a chronic inflammatory disease which may show cardiac involvement. The effect of AS on aortic elasticity has not been previously defined. The aim of this study was to determine whether there was any change in aortic elasticity in AS. Methods and results-Thirty-five AS patients without cardiovascular involvement and 30 healthy subjects were enrolled into the study. Aortic strain, distensibility index and stiffness index beta were calculated from aortic diameters measured by echocardiography and blood pressures simultaneously measured by sphygmomanometry. The mean aortic strain and distensibility indexes in the AS group were lower than those in the control group. The mean aortic stiffness index in the AS group was higher than that in the control group (p < 0.05). No correlation between the means and the duration was observed in the AS group. Conclusion-We found that in AS patients without cardiac involvement, aortic elasticity was decreased and this decrease was not correlated with the duration of AS.