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Abstract
Wide PP after the age of 50 years denotes increased arterial
stiffness and endothelial dysfunction. Folic acid supplementation
has been previously shown to improve endothelial dysfunction.
The aim of the study is to address the effect of folic acid
supplementation on endothelial function and arterial compliance in
this patient population.
In this open label study, 42 non diabetic volunteers were enrolled.
Most of them were receiving treatment for hypertension.
Participants were randomly assigned to receive 10 mg daily oral
folic acid supplementation for 2 weeks or receive their original
medical treatment alone. Pretreatment brachial artery flow
mediated dilatation (FMD) and carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity
(PWVCF) were determined and compared to post treatment values.
Persons enrolled to folic acid study showed improved PWVCF (12.4
± 1.5 m/s vs. 13.4 ± 1.8 m/s) compared to control group (11.7 ± 1.8
m/s vs. 11.3 ± 1.7 m/s ), p= 0.008. There was no significant
improvement in FMD (8.4% ± 5.1% vs. 6.3% ± 5.2%, p= NS). In
subgroup analysis of the folic acid group, males showed a
tendency towards improved FMD (11.2% ± 4.1% vs. 7.1% ± 5.8%)
compared to females (5.5% ± 4.6% vs. 5.6% ± 4.7%), p=NS.
We concluded that a sixteen days course of 10 mg daily folic acid
supplementation improved arterial stiffness with no significant
improvement of endothelial dysfunction in non diabetic people
aged above 50 years with wide PP.