Ankle brachial index, C-reactive protein, and central augmentation index to identify individuals with severe atherosclerosis.
OBJECTIVE
We examined the ability of ankle brachial index, C-reactive protein and central augmentation index to identify individuals in the general population with severe atherosclerosis, diagnosed as those with ischaemic cardiovascular disease.


RESULTS
We examined 4159 randomly sampled individuals from the Danish general population, of which 250 had severe atherosclerosis. After adjustment for gender and age, individuals with ankle brachial index of 0.71-0.90 and <0.70 vs. 0.91-1.10 had odds ratios for severe atherosclerosis of 1.6 (95%CI:1.1-2.3) and 2.9 (1.9-4.6), respectively. C-reactive protein of >3.0 or 1.0-3.0 mg/L vs. <1.0 mg/L as well as central augmentation index in quintiles did not identify individuals with severe atherosclerosis, and did not improve further the ability of ankle brachial index to identify such individuals. On a continuous scale using receiver operating characteristics curves, presence of severe atherosclerosis was predicted by ankle brachial index (P=0.00000003), C-reactive protein (P=0.000003), as well as central augmentation index (P=0.001); these three curves did not differ.


CONCLUSIONS
Ankle brachial index <0.9 identify individuals with severe atherosclerosis in the general population, while C-reactive protein in three groups and central augmentation index in quintiles did not. On a continuous scale, all three variables predicted severe atherosclerosis.
Eldrup
Nikolaj
N
Department of Vascular Surgery, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Sillesen
Henrik
H
Prescott
Eva
E
Nordestgaard
Børge G
BG
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000842:Ankle / Q000098:blood supply; D050197:Atherosclerosis / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D001916:Brachial Artery / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000378:metabolism*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
D002097:C-Reactive Protein