The only confounding condition is that of severe hardening of the vascular wall such as what can be seen in diabetic patients. The technique has excellent records: for values below the limit of 0.9, specificity is almost 100% and sensitivity 95% (ref. II - Results of the ankle brachial index (ABI) a) Result records A portable Doppler device is sufficient to perform the measurements. It is expressed as the systolic blood pressure measured at the ankle divided by systolic pressure at the arm. Measuring the ankle brachial index(ABI) is an easy and cheap alternative, totally non invasive, that can elegantly be performed during the consultation. Also, other locations of atherosclerosis such as at the renal arteries can severely increase morbidity and mortality (ref.3).ĭiagnosis of PAD can be made quite easily at the consultation by palpation and auscultation of the arteries in the limbs. Surveys of several medical and surgical series have shown that 40% of the claudicants also have angina pectoris coronary angiography performed before vascular surgery, reveals significant coronary lesions in almost 90% of the cases (ref. Therefore, prognosis of PAD patients is often compromised by the presence of associated coronary and/or cerebral artery disease. However, more importantly, is the fact that PAD also is a marker of atherosclerosis in arteries elsewhere in the body (ref. Still, intermittent claudication can severely affect the quality of life of the patients. One of the reasons is that intermittent claudication – the most typical symptom of atherosclerotic disease in the limb arteries- is considered a less disturbing symptom than cardiac dyspnoea or angina pectoris.

Diseases of the peripheral arteries have often not been of major interest to cardiologists.

Ankle brachial index