Inflammation and arterial stiffness

Arterial stiffness is one of the earliest detectable manifestations of adverse structural and functional changes within the vessel wall. It is well known that increased large artery stiffness independently predicts the cardiovascular risk in a variety of populations. The identification of populations at higher risk of increased arterial stiffness and the knowledge of the mechanisms involved in arterial stiffening may help to identificate pharmacological and other treatments to reduce the arterial stiffness and improve the outcome of the patients. Recently, new advances have been proposed about the active role of inflammation and endothelial dysfunction in arterial stiffening and early atherosclerosis. The aims of this thesis were to review the literature and to study, for the first time, the arterial stiffness in inflammatory bowel disease.