Markers of arterial health could serve as accurate non-invasive predictors of human biological and chronological age

The decline in functional capacity is unavoidable consequence of the process of aging. While many anti-aging interventions have been proposed, clinical investigations into anti-aging medicine are limited by lack of reliable techniques for evaluating the rate of ageing. Here we present simple, accurate and cost-efficient techniques for estimation of human biological age, Male and Female Arterial Indices. We started with developing a model which accurately predicts chronological age. Using machine learning, we arrived on a set of four predictors, all of which reflect the functioning of the cardiovascular system. In Arterial Indices models, results of carotid artery duplex scan that show the thickness of the intima media complex and quantitatively describe the degree of stenosis are combined with pulse wave velocity and augmentation index measurements performed by applanation tonometry. In our cohort, the age of men was determined with MAE = 6.91 years (adjusted R-squared = 0.55), and the age of women with MAE = 5.87 years (adjusted R² = 0.69). The Epsilon-accuracies of age-predicting models were at 86.5% and 80% for women and men, respectively. Substantially higher differences between the predicted age and the calendar age were noted for patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2D) as compared to non-T2D controls, indicating that the model could serve as a good approximation for an elusive biological age. Notably, in females with chronological and biological ages mismatching by 5 or more years, significant increases in in Framingham CVD scores and lower levels of IGF-1 were observed.

Proposed Male and Female Arterial Indices derive biological age from the results of functional tests which do not require specialized laboratory equipment and, therefore, could be performed in hospitals and community health clinics.