Quality of life and arterial stiffness indices in patients with chronic limb-threatening ischemia

Abstract

Introduction: The factors associated with impaired quality of life in patients with chronic limb-threatening ischemia are not well established. Objective: Check whether there is an association between quality of life and arterial stiffness indexes, pulse wave velocity (PWV) and the augmentation index corrected to 75 beats per minute heart rate (AIx@75). Methods: This is a cross-sectional, observational study, with the participation of 17 patients (65.65 ± 11.79 years) with chronic limb-threatening ischemia defined by the Rutherford classification 4, 5 and 6, and with the ankle-arm index (ABI) < 0.80. The evaluation of vascular parameters and arterial stiffness indeces was performed with the MobilO-Graph ® device that generates the aortic pulse wave from the brachial artery oscillometry. Quality of life was assessed using the questionnaire Vascular quality of life questionaire (VascuQoL-6), short version, developed specifically to evaluate patients with circulatory, arterial or venous involvement. Results: The values of the ITB and the quality of life score were 0.48 ± 0.14 and 15.88 ± 1.03; respectively. Of the 17 patients, 12 had systolic arterial hypertension and sixteen had PWV greater than 10 m / s. No correlations were observed between the quality of life score with AIx @ 75 (p = 0.54 and r = 0.16), PWV (p = 0.332 and r = 0.248) and ABI (p = 0.707 and r = 0.098). Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that patients with chronic limb-threatening ischemia present significant impairment of quality of life without association with arterial stiffness and ABI.

Keywords

• pulse wave velocity
• arterial stiffness
• peripheral arterial disease
• aortic pulse wave