The Relation Between Ankle-Brachial Index (ABI) and Coronary Artery Disease Severity and Risk Factors: An Angiographic Study

<br /><strong>BACKGROUND</strong>: The current study aims to determine the relation between ankle&ndash;brachial<br />index (ABI) and angiographic findings and major cardiovascular risk factors in patients with<br />suspected coronary artery diseases (CAD) in Isfahan.<br /><strong>METHODS</strong>: In this cross-sectional descriptive-analytic research, patients with suspected CAD<br />were studied. Characteristics of studied subjects including demographics, familial history, past<br />medical history and atherosclerotic risk factors such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension,<br />hyperlipidemia and smoking were obtained using a standard questionnaire. ABI was measured<br />in all studied patients. ABI &le; 0.9 (ABI+) was considered as peripheral vessel disease and ABI &gt;<br />0.9 (ABI-) was considered as normal. Then, all studied patients underwent coronary artery<br />angiography. The results of the questionnaire and angiographic findings were compared in ABI+<br />and ABI- groups. Data were analyzed by SPSS 15 using ANOVA, t-test, Spearman's rank<br />correlation coefficient, and discriminant analysis.<br /><strong>RESULTS</strong>: In this study, 125 patients were investigated. ABI &le; 0.9 was seen in 25 patients (20%).<br />The prevalence of ABI+ among men and women was 25.9% and 7.5%, respectively (P = 0.01). The<br />prevalence of atherosclerotic risk factors was significantly higher in ABI+ patients than in ABIones<br />(P &lt; 0.05). ABI+ patients had more significant stenosis than ABI- ones. The mean of<br />occlusion was significantly higher in ABI+ patients with left main artery (LMA), right coronary<br />artery (RCA), left anterior descending artery (LAD), diagonal artery 1 (D1) and left circumflex<br />artery (LCX) involvements (P &lt; 0.05).<br /><strong>CONCLUSION</strong>: The findings of this research indicated that ABI could be a useful method in<br />assessing both the atherosclerotic risk factors and the degree of coronary involvements in<br />suspected patients. However, in order to make more accurate decisions for using this method in<br />diagnosing and preventing CAD, we should plan further studies in large sample sizes of general<br />population.<br /><strong>Keywords</strong>: Ankle&ndash;Brachial Index, Angiography, Atherosclerotic Risk Factors