Menopause and the characteristics of the large arteries in a population study

In previous cross-sectional and longitudinal population studies, we found t hat the slope of systolic pressure on age was steeper in postmenopausal tha n in premenopausal women. We hypothesised that this observation could be du e to a specific effect of menopause on the elasticity of the large arteries . We investigated 315 randomly selected women, aged 30 to 70 years. Based o n 5.2 years of follow-up, 166 women were premenopausal and 149 menopausal ( 44 reaching menopause and 105 postmenopausal). These women were matched on age and body mass index with 315 men. We used a wall-tracking ultrasound sy stem to measure the diameter, compliance and distensibility of the brachial and the common carotid and femoral arteries as well as carotid-femoral pul se wave velocity. Pulse pressure was determined from 24-h blood pressure re cordings. Both in menopausal women (r = 0.37; P < 0.001) and in matching ma le controls (r = 0.16; P = 0.04), pulse pressure widened with increasing ag e. The slope of the 24-h pulse pressure on age was steeper in menopausal wo men than in their premenopausal counterparts (0.428 vs -0.066 mmHg per year ; P = 0.003) and than in the male controls (0.428 vs 0.188 mm Hg per year; P = 0.06). After adjustment for age, 24-h mean pressure, body mass index, a nti hypertensive drug treatment, smoking and the use of oral contraceptives or hormonal replacement therapy, postmenopausal women showed a higher caro tid-femoral pulse wave velocity (7.77 vs 6.71 m/s; P = 0.02) and had a slig htly greater diameter of the common carotid artery (7.09 vs 6.79 mm; P = 0. 07) than their premenopausal counterparts. After similar adjustments, menop ausal class was not significantly associated with other vascular measuremen ts in women or with any vascular measurement in control men. In conclusion, menopause per se may increase aortic stiffness. We hypothesise that this p henomenon may contribute to the rise in systolic pressure and pulse pressur e in women beyond age 50 and, in turn, may lead to a slight dilatation of t he common carotid artery.