title: [Color Doppler ultrasound study on pathological changes of lower extremity arteries in patients with metabolic syndrome].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore the pathological changes of lower extremity arteries of patients with metabolic syndrome.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty patients with metabolic syndrome (MS) and 30 normal volunteers were included in this study. The inner diameters, peak systolic velocities and intima-media thicknesses of the lower extremity arteries, and the sizes and numbers of the plaques in the lower extremity arteries were obtained with color Doppler ultrasound (CDU).
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the fifty MS patients, the intima-media thicknesses of forty-one were thicker than 1.1 mm and thirty-three had plaques which had brought stenosis in different degrees. The intima-media thicknesses of the common femoral, popliteal and posterior tibial arteries in the MS patients were significantly thicker than those in the normal volunteers (P<0.01 or P<0.05), and a greater number of plaques in the lower extremity arteries were observed in the patients, as compared with the normal volunteers (P<0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Various pathological changes had taken place in the lower extremity arteries of the MS patients. The sites and degrees of the lower extremity arterial diseases in MS patients can be definitely detected with CDU.
authors.affiliation: Department of Function, Longhua Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 200032, China.
authors.forename: Hao-Qiang
authors.initials: HQ
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Hu-Sheng
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Xiao
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001157:Arterial Occlusive Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D005263:Femoral Artery / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D035002:Lower Extremity / Q000098:blood supply*; D008297:Male; D024821:Metabolic Syndrome / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D008875:Middle Aged; D011150:Popliteal Artery / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D018616:Ultrasonography, Doppler, Duplex