Integrative Approach to Investigate Suboptimal Health Status and Endothelial Dysfunction

To screen and identify the preclinical reversible stages of a chronic disease, suboptimal health status (SHS) may be one of the key answers to this challenge. We identified an association between SHS and the risk factors of the cardiovascular disease and examined the correlations between SHS and endothelial dysfunction by integrating the scores of the SHS-25 Questionnaire (SHSQ-25) and measure of the indicators of endothelial dysfunction. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 459 participants (190 males/269 females); with age 18–40 years old from Samara, Russian Federation. Participants did not have any diagnosed diseases in their clinical history, and they were not prescribed with any medical treatments in the last 2 weeks. SHSQ-25 diagnostic screening questionnaire was applied for suboptimal health status, along with assessment of the risk factors for cardiovascular disease and blood biomarkers cholesterol, glucose and serum endothelin-1. Computer photoplethysmography was used to determine the endothelial function. Significant association of SHS with the risk factors of cardiovascular diseases was detected: smoking, overweight, total cholesterol, glucose and blood endothelin-1, which correlate with endothelial reactivity and affect the quality of life. Reactivity of blood vessels was assessed by measuring endothelial function and ischemia of the upper extremity and further confirmed by computer photoplethysmography. Reactivity of blood vessels reflects the blood circulation based on the systemic function of the vascular endothelium that is associated the cardiovascular risk factors such as age, gender, body weight index, nature of work activity and blood pressure. The current study aimed to integrate SHS with the endothelial function to create a new tool for screening cardiovascular risks in the context of preventive, predictive and personalised medicine (PPPM/3PM) for prompting cardiovascular health.