[Ankle brachial index is associated with the severity of coronary heart disease]

Ankle brachial index (ABI) and brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV), well-established non-invasive techniques for evaluating obstruction and stiffness of peripheral artery respectively, are considered for the purposes of cardiovascular risk assessment. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impacts of ABI and baPWV on the extent of coronary heart disease (CHD).

Patients were enrolled consecutively from wards of Cardiovascular Department, Peking University First Hospital from March 2008 to March 2009. They had both coronary angiography (CAG), ABI and baPWV data available. ABI and baPWV were measured using an automatic device (BP-203PRE II, Colin, Japan). Patients were stratified into three groups based on CAG results: non-CHD group, single-vessel group, multiple-vessel group. Multivariate linear regression was performed in a total of 216 patients to evaluate the associations of ABI, baPWV and the extent of CHD measured by numbers of coronary arteries diseased.

Patients with multiple-vessel disease (n=113) had a lower ABI value (1.05±0.18 vs. 1.12±0.11, P=0.002) than non-CHD patients (n=49). Moreover, the results remained statistically significant after adjustment for age, gender, body mass index (BMI), smoking status, history of hypertension, diabetes and hyperlipidemia (β=-0.06±0.03 and P=0.029). There had no significant differences of ABI value between single-vessel disease group (n=54) and non-CHD group. In addition, no significant results were observed when comparing baPWV value and disease severity among these three groups.

Our study suggests that ABI value may predict the extent of CHD. The more coronary arteries are involved, the lower ABI value is observed.