As blood vessels age, their structure and function gradually change. This process is influenced by diet and the presence of modifiable risk factors. Blood vessel status can be clinically evaluated by measuring arterial stiffness or ankle-brachial index. The patients vascular age can be calculated using the SCORE project and indicates what age would have a person with the same calculated cardiovascular risk, whose risk factors were all within the normal range. The vascular age can be positively influenced by nonpharmacological measures, hypolipidemic statin therapy and also by hypertension pharmacotherapy, especially renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitors. Long-term follow-up of patients enrolled in clinical trials with antihypertensive and hypolipidemic agents suggests the existence of so-called vascular memory, since the beneficial effects of these interventions on reduction of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality persist for many years after completion of these studies. Early initiation of preventive measures has a greater effect.
Keywords: cardiovascular risk factors; intervention; metabolic memory; vascular age; vascular aging; vascular memory.