BackgroundPulse wave velocity (PWV) has been regarded as the 'gold standard' measurement of arterial stiffness, but it is still only used in the assessment of central and peripheral arteries.We constructed a new method to evaluate cerebral arterial stiffness by measuring PWV using transcanial Doppler (TCD).Methods Ninety healthy subjects who received annual health screening were consecutively enrolled into this study between January 2011 and June 2013.Data on clinical characteristics, brachium-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) and carotid-cerebral pulse wave velocity (ccPWV) measured with our newly constructed method by two experienced operators were recorded.ccPWV was calculated from the distance of two points between common carotid artery and the proximal part of ipsilateral middle cerebral artery, which was divided by the pulse transit time between these two points where the pulse was measured using TCD.ResultsThe value of ccPWYwas 499.3±78.6cm/s.Correlation between ccPWVand baPWVin assessment of arterial stiffness was r =0.794 (P<0.001).The concordance between both methods above was good.Intraobserver reliability using interclass correlation for measuring ccPWV was 0.815(P<0.001).In multivariable analysis, older age (β =4.51, p<0.001) and increased diastolic blood pressure (β =2.39, p<0.001) were independently associated with higher ccPWV.Conclusion ccPWVmeasured by TCD is a promising method for assessment of human cerebral arterial stiffness, which is associated with age or diastolic blood pressure independently.