TY - JOUR
T1 - Heritability of cerebral arterial velocity and resistance
AU - Tarnoki, Adam Domonkos
AU - Tarnoki, David Laszlo
AU - Giannoni, Maria Fabrizia
AU - Baracchini, Claudio
AU - Meneghetti, Giorgio
AU - Cardaioli, Gabriela
AU - Medda, Emanuela
AU - Stazi, Maria Antonietta
AU - Cotichini, Rodolfo
AU - Fagnani, Corrado
AU - Nisticò, Lorenza
AU - Lucatelli, Pierleone
AU - Fanelli, Fabrizio
AU - Berczi, Viktor
AU - Garami, Zsolt
AU - Littvay, Levente
AU - Schillaci, Giuseppe
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Italian Federation of Cardiology. All rights reserved.
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - Aims: Cerebrovascular resistance is a pressure-dependent mechanism resulting from cerebral autoregulation, which is the normal buffering of changes in arterial blood pressure. Lifestyle habits are known to have an influence; however, its magnitude is still unclear. The aimof this study was to assess the contribution of additive genetic, shared and unshared environmental factors to changes in middle cerebral artery (MCA) mean flow velocities (MFVs) and pulsatility index. Methods: One hundred and forty-three Italian twin pairs from Padua, Perugia and Rome (68 monozygotic, 75 dizygotic, 55 ± 12 years) underwent transcranial Doppler sonography of the MCA bilaterally. Univariate quantitative genetic modeling was performed to decompose the phenotypic variance of averaged MFV and pulsatility index into additive genetic, shared and unique environmental effects adjusted by age and sex. Results: MFV was heritable in 30.6%[95% confidence interval (CI) 0.8-67.3%], and shared and unshared environmental factors explained 47.7 and 21.6% of the variance (95% CI 14.4-71.9% and 12.6-32.0%). Pulsatility index was not genetically determined, but unique and common environmental factors were responsible for 54.2 and 38.1% of the variance (95% CI 36.3-71.8% and 0.0-57.8%). Conclusion: These findings underline the importance of identification of the specific genes and common environmental factors related to MFV. Individuals with positive family history of stroke related to the atherosclerosis of MCA might take advantage from preventive ultrasound screening. More emphasis should be placed on the prevention of the known related common environmental factors on MFV and the individual lifestyle risk factors on pulsatility index.
AB - Aims: Cerebrovascular resistance is a pressure-dependent mechanism resulting from cerebral autoregulation, which is the normal buffering of changes in arterial blood pressure. Lifestyle habits are known to have an influence; however, its magnitude is still unclear. The aimof this study was to assess the contribution of additive genetic, shared and unshared environmental factors to changes in middle cerebral artery (MCA) mean flow velocities (MFVs) and pulsatility index. Methods: One hundred and forty-three Italian twin pairs from Padua, Perugia and Rome (68 monozygotic, 75 dizygotic, 55 ± 12 years) underwent transcranial Doppler sonography of the MCA bilaterally. Univariate quantitative genetic modeling was performed to decompose the phenotypic variance of averaged MFV and pulsatility index into additive genetic, shared and unique environmental effects adjusted by age and sex. Results: MFV was heritable in 30.6%[95% confidence interval (CI) 0.8-67.3%], and shared and unshared environmental factors explained 47.7 and 21.6% of the variance (95% CI 14.4-71.9% and 12.6-32.0%). Pulsatility index was not genetically determined, but unique and common environmental factors were responsible for 54.2 and 38.1% of the variance (95% CI 36.3-71.8% and 0.0-57.8%). Conclusion: These findings underline the importance of identification of the specific genes and common environmental factors related to MFV. Individuals with positive family history of stroke related to the atherosclerosis of MCA might take advantage from preventive ultrasound screening. More emphasis should be placed on the prevention of the known related common environmental factors on MFV and the individual lifestyle risk factors on pulsatility index.
KW - Cerebral autoregulation
KW - Cerebral hemodynamics
KW - Genetics
KW - Intracranial atherosclerosis
KW - Transcranial doppler
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84919628561&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.2459/JCM.0000000000000230
DO - 10.2459/JCM.0000000000000230
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84919628561
SN - 1558-2027
VL - 18
SP - 28
EP - 33
JO - Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine
JF - Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine
IS - 1
ER -