Cardio‐ankle vascular index(CAVI) is a novel index that measures arterial stiffness noninvasively. Recent studies demonstrated CAVI to be a predictor for coronary artery disease(CAD). Patients with Type-2 diabetes mellitus(DM) develop arterial stiffening which contributes to the CAD complications associated with DM. However, a comprehensive assessment of the association of CAVI and DM has not been reported.

The STOP trial randomized patients with DM and presence of coronary plaque on CCTA to Semaglutide 1mg once weekly or placebo. CAVI was measured using the VaSera(Fukuda Denshi, Tokyo, Japan). Non-invasive blood pressure, Pulse Wave Velocity and Heart Sound Measuring were integrated to compute CAVI. Multivariate linear regression was used to examine the association of baseline CAVI and duration of diabetes.

In 98 randomized STOP subjects, mean age was 56.8±8.3 yrs and 60 (61%) were male. Of these, 81 (83%) had hyperlipidemia, 81 (83%) had hypertension, 13 (13%) were current-smokers, and 31 (32%) were former-smokers. The mean duration of DM was 16.3±7.5 yrs. In an unadjusted linear regression analysis, there was a positive linear relationship between duration of DM and CAVI (p=0.036). However, upon further analysis with adjustment for age, gender, body mass index, HLD, HTN, and past smoking, the association was no longer significant (p=0.189).

CAVI has a linear association with the duration of Diabetes. The lack of statistical significance on multivariate adjusted analysis could be due to the small sample size. Future studies should assess the prognostic role of CAVI in patients with DM.