Developing technologies to assess vascular ageing: a roadmap from VascAgeNet
Serena Zanelli, Davide Agnoletti, Jordi Alastruey, John Allen, Elisabetta Bianchini, Vasiliki Bikia, Pierre Boutouyrie, Rosa María Bruno, Rachel E. Climie, Djamaleddine Djeldjli, Εugenia Gkaliagkousi, Alessandro Giudici, Kristina Gopčević, Andrea Grillo, Andrea Guala, Bernhard Hametner, Jayaraj Joseph, Parmis Karimpour, Vimarsha Kodithuwakku, P. A. Kyriacou, Αntonios Lazaridis, Mai Tone Lønnebakken, Maria Raffaella Martina, Christopher Mayer, P M Nabeel, Petras Navickas, János Nemcsik, Stefan Orter, Chloe Park, Telmo Pereira, Giacomo Pucci, Ana Belen Amado Rey, Paolo Salvi, Ana Carolina Gonçalves Seabra, Ute Seeland, Thomas T. van Sloten, Bart Spronck, Gerard Stansby, Indra L. M. Steens, Thomas Stieglitz, Isabella Tan, Dave Veerasingam, Siegfried Wassertheurer, Thomas Weber, Berend E. Westerhof, Peter Charlton
Abstract
Vascular ageing (vascular ageing) is the deterioration of arterial structure and function which occurs naturally with age, and which can be accelerated with disease. Measurements of vascular ageing are emerging as markers of cardiovascular risk, with potential applications in disease diagnosis and prognosis, and for guiding treatments. However, vascular ageing is not yet routinely assessed in clinical practice. A key step towards this is the development of technologies to assess vascular ageing. In this Roadmap, experts discuss several aspects of this process, including: measurement technologies; the development pipeline; clinical applications; and future research directions. The Roadmap summarises the state of the art, outlines the major challenges to overcome, and identifies potential future research directions to address these challenges.