title: Predictive power of cardiovascular risk factors for detecting peripheral vascular disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Peripheral vascular disease (PVD) is underdiagnosed in primary care due to the absence of established criteria to warrant diagnostic testing. Our goal was to establish a risk factor hierarchy to enable earlier diagnosis of PVD.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data sets of 142 patients with abnormal ankle brachial indices (ABI) were randomly selected from our patient database to determine the prevalence of specific cardiovascular risk factors and demographic data. An ABI score < 0.90 is diagnostic of PVD. Patients were stratified into mild (0.75-0.89), moderate (0.50-0.74), and severe disease (< 0.50).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean age was 69 +/- 9.9, ABI 0.65 +/- 0.16. Risk factor prevalence: diabetes, 42%; hypertension, 87%; tobacco use, 34%; hyperlipidemia, 53%; obesity, 24%; cardiovascular disease (CVD), 69%; stroke, 15%. Total risk factors per patient v = 3.2 +/- 1.3. Disease severity stratifications: mild, n = 46 (age v = 68.6 +/- 10.4, ABI v = 0.82 +/- 0.05); moderate, n = 72 (age v = 69.9 +/- 9.4, ABI v = 0.62 +/- 0.07); severe, n = 24 (age v = 67.5 +/- 10.9, ABI v = 0.40 +/- 0.06). Independent variable mean differences: hypertension-CVD (P = 0.0002); CVD-hyperlipidemia (P = 0.002); hyperlipidemia-diabetes (P = 0.0008); diabetes-tobacco use (P = 0.001); tobacco use-obesity (P = 0.0003); obesity-stroke (P = 0.05). Independent variable mean differences were significant across disease severity (P < 0.00001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study establishes the following hierarchy of cardiovascular risk factors as predictors of PVD: hypertension, cardiovascular disease, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, tobacco use, obesity, stroke.
authors.affiliation: South Carolina Heart Center, Department of Investigator Initiated Research, 2001 Laurel Street, Columbia, SC 29063, USA. jfine@scheart.com
authors.forename: Jeffrey J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Fine
authors.forename: Patrick A X
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.forename: J Huger
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Richardson
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D016208:Databases, Factual; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006949:Hyperlipidemias / Q000150:complications*; D006973:Hypertension / Q000150:complications*; D008297:Male; D016491:Peripheral Vascular Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index