%0 Journal Article %A Bruno, RM %A Spronck, B %A Hametner, B %A Hughes, A %A Lacolley, P %A Mayer, CC %A Muiesan, ML %A Rajkumar, C %A Terentes-Printzios, D %A Weber, T %A Hansen, TW %A Boutouyrie, P %D 2021 %F discovery:10130265 %I ATLANTIS PRESS %J Artery Research %K COVID-19, coronavirus, inflammation, vascular ageing, arterial stiffness %N 2 %P 59-68 %T Covid-19 Effects on ARTErial StIffness and Vascular AgeiNg: CARTESIAN Study Rationale and Protocol %U https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10130265/ %V 27 %X In December 2019, an outbreak of pneumonia caused by a novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) spread rapidly worldwide. Although the clinical manifestations of COVID-19 are dominated by respiratory symptoms, the cardiovascular system is extensively affected at multiple levels. Due to the unprecedented consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ARTERY society decided to launch the Covid-19 effects on ARTErial StIffness and vascular AgeiNg (CARTESIAN) study — the first international multicentre study into the effects of COVID-19 on non-invasive biomarkers of vascular ageing. The main study objective is to evaluate the presence of Early Vascular Ageing (EVA) 6 and 12 months after COVID-19 infection. Secondary objectives are to study the effect of COVID-19 disease severity on EVA, to investigate the role of psychosocial factors in COVID-19 induced EVA, and to investigate the potential modifying effect of comorbidities and chronic treatments. In the CARTESIAN study, a broad array of cardiovascular measurements, including carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity, central blood pressure, carotid ultrasound, brachial flow-mediated dilatation, will be performed. To date, 43 centres from 21 countries have agreed to participate, with an expected study population of >2500 individuals. To our knowledge, CARTESIAN will be the first study to provide insight into the relationship between COVID-19, its severity, and early vascular ageing in a large cohort, potentially enabling future care and diagnostics to be more focused on the most vulnerable. %Z This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).