[The reliability of the ankle/arm index for the study of chronic arteriopathy of the lower limbs in primary care].
OBJECTIVE
To validate the "ankle/arm" index (AAI) or "Yao index" for the primary care assessment of chronic arteriopathy in the lower limbs (CALL).


METHODS
A descriptive crossover study.


METHODS
Primary care.


METHODS
21 with suspected or diagnosed CALL.


RESULTS
Four primary-care doctors made 164 examinations by means of palpation and determination of blood pressure with Doppler waves. The presence or absence of pulses was recorded and the AAI calculated. The interobserver Kappa ranged from 0.20 to 0.47 and the intraobserver from 0.52 to 0.76, according to the pulse examined. The intraclass interobserver correlation coefficient for the AAI was 0.80 and the intraobserver 0.79. Interobserver SD for the AAI was 0.14, and intraobserver SD 0.15.


CONCLUSIONS
The ankle-arm index obtained by primary-care doctors using Doppler is a reliable method of studying CALL. However, due to its wide variability, it is advisable always to evaluate its evolution together with clinical data.
Comas Fuentes
A
A
Centro de Salud Otero, Oviedo. acomasf@meditex.es
Rodríguez Suárez
L
L
Esteban Herreros
A
A
González-Nuevo Quiñones
J P
JP
Alvarez Solar
M
M
García-Cañedo Fernández
R
R
Valle González
A
A
D000368:Aged; D000842:Ankle / Q000098:blood supply*; D001132:Arm / Q000098:blood supply*; D001157:Arterial Occlusive Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001795:Blood Pressure Determination / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007866:Leg / Q000098:blood supply*; D008297:Male; D015588:Observer Variation; D011320:Primary Health Care; D011674:Pulse; D015203:Reproducibility of Results