Role of ankle-brachial pressure index as a predictor of coronary artery disease severity in diabetic and non-diabetic patients

Abstract

The aim of the study was to estimate the role of ankle-brachial pressure index (ABI) in predicting severity of coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients with or without diabetes mellitus. Methods: This study included 120 patients with CAD proved by coronary angiography and ABI was measured for all of them. They were divided into 4 groups; Group (A): Non-diabetic patients without peripheral arterial disease (PAD) (ABI 0.9) and Group (D):diabetic patients with PAD (ABI > 0.9). Results: Hypertension was more prevalent in group (D) (p value > 0.05). Group (C) had the highest mean age and the highest percentage of smokers, after normalization of the effects of the risk factors mean Gensini score, mean number of affected coronary vessels, mean number of coronary artery lesions and the percentage of coronary artery chronic total occlusions (CTO) were significantly higher in groups (C & D) (p > 0.001) (Table 1). Conclusion: ABI had a significant relationship with the degree of CAD severity. Therefore ABI seems to be a reliable independent prognostic marker of CAD severity in patients with or without diabetes mellitus.