Manifestation of lower extremity atherosclerosis in patients with high ankle-brachial index

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify the manifestation of lower extremity atherosclerotic lesions in patients with high ankle-brachial index (ABI). We studied 92 diabetic patients at random from the Endocrine Department of the Chinese PLA General Hospital. According to the ABI value, the subjects were divided into three groups: high, normal and low ABI groups. On the basis of the results of lower extremity artery duplex ultrasound, the patients in the high ABI group had a lower incidence of low extremity artery occlusion than those in the low ABI group, and the atherosclerotic lesions of patients in the high group mainly displayed diffuse dot-like hyperechogenicity spots or small plaques (60.9%), and their atherosclerotic lesions in the lower extremity were mostly found in the distal segment (44.4%). This atherosclerosis in the lower extremities of patients in the high ABI group was shown to be consistent with the pathological features of artery intimal and medial calcification. It suggests that a high ABI is highly predictive of artery calcification, which is a marker of poor cardiovascular prognosis in diabetes. Br J Diabetes Vasc Dis 2009;9:160—164