Digital clubbing may be an indicator of systemic atherosclerosis even at microvascular level

Abstract

WOS: 000314345000014Background: Presence of any relationship between digital clubbing and microvascular atherosclerosis was tried to be understood. Methods: Cases with digital clubbing and controls were studied. Results: The study included 104 cases with clubbing and 120 controls. Mean age of clubbing cases was 49.2 years, and there was a male predominance (81.7%) among them. There were significantly higher prevalences of smoking and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the clubbing group (69.2 versus 41.6% and 27.8 versus 10.8%, respectively, p<0.001 for both). Although body mass index (BMI), weight, and fasting plasma glucose (FPG) were lower in the clubbing group, the differences were nonsignificant probably due to the small sample sizes. Although the negative effect of small sample sizes, prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) and mean value of systolic blood pressure (BP) were significanlty lower in the clubbing group (12.5 versus 21.6% and 127.6 versus 136.9 mmHg, respectively, p<0.05 for both). On the other hand, prevalence of coronary heart disease (CHD) and/or peripheric artery disease (PAD) were significantly higher in the clubbing group (7.6 versus 0.0%, p<0.01). Conclusions: There are significant relationships between digital clubbing and smoking, COPD, and CHD and/or PAD probably due to strong atherosclerotic effects of smoking with highly suspected atherosclerotic background of COPD. Whereas the BMI, weight, FPG, systolic BP, and prevalence of DM are inversely related with digital clubbing probably due to suppressor effects of smoking on appetite. So clubbing may be a significant indicator of systemic atherosclerosis even at microvascular level