Stiffening of your blood vessels, particularly the large vessels from your heart (called the aorta and carotids) you age contributes to the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD) such as heart attack and stroke. Nerve activity from your brain to your body also increases with advancing age but it is unknown if this nerve activity contributes directly to the stiffening on your blood vessels in older adults in addition to high blood pressure. Therefore, successful completion of the proposed aims will have a significant clinical impact by identifying if nerve activity from your brain could be a novel target for therapies that would lower stiffness of the aorta and carotid arteries in older adults.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
TRIPLE
Enrollment
100
Clonidine 0.2 mg/day oral tablet
Hydrochlorothiazide 37.5 mg/day oral tablet
Placebo
Amy Stroud
Iowa City, Iowa, United States
University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa, United States
Change in carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity
Aortic stiffness
Time frame: Baseline and after 4 weeks
Change in carotid distensibility index
Change in carotid distensibility
Time frame: Baseline and after 4 weeks
Change in carotid flow pulsatility index
Change in carotid flow pulsatility
Time frame: Baseline and after 4 weeks
Change in carotid intimal medial thickness (IMT)
Change in carotid wall thickness
Time frame: Baseline and after 4 weeks
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