title: [Ankle-brachial index in patients with diabetes mellitus: prevalence and risk factors].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Diabetic patients have a high cardiovascular morbidity and mortality rate. Ankle brachial index (ABI) is an available, straightforward and reproducible method for the detection of peripheral vascular disease and for improving risk stratification in this population. The objective of our study was to evaluate the prevalence of a low and a pathological ABI in type 2 diabetics older than 60 years and to study the risk factors associated with its development.
  
  
  METHODS
  1,360 subjects between 60 and 79 years, 213 of them diabetics, without symptoms of intermittent claudication and who gave their consent to have an ABI measurement in their primary care center were included in the study. Cardiovascular risk factors were evaluated in all participants. An ABI < 0.9 was considered low and a value < 0.9, >or= 1.4 or non-compressible was considered pathological.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Prevalence of a low ABI in subjects with or without diabetes was 11.3% and 4.3% and prevalence of a pathological ABI was 18.8% and 7%, respectively. Factor associated with a low or pathological ABI were gender, age, duration of diabetes, the type of antidiabetic treatment and the presence of vascular disease in another vascular bed. After multivariate adjustment, only age (OR: 1.15; 95% CI: 1.04-1.27) and duration of diabetes (OR: 1.05; 95% CI: 1.01-1.10) continue being significant. The prevalence of a pathological ABI did not differ between diabetics without vascular disease and non-diabetics with previous cardiovascular disease.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The prevalence of a low or pathological ABI is elevated in diabetic subjects and relates with age, duration of diabetes and the presence of vascular disease in another vascular bed.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Salud Fuencarral, Madrid.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Vicente
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lahoz
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Taboada
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Laguna
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: García-Iglesias
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Mostaza Prieto
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000842:Ankle; D015415:Biomarkers; D001916:Brachial Artery / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006937:Hypercholesterolemia / Q000453:epidemiology; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D018616:Ultrasonography, Doppler, Duplex
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers