Obesity Indices and Peripheral Artery Disease Measured by Ankle Brachial Index in Nigerian Out-Patients

Peripheral artery disease (PAD), an important component of the cardiovascular triad, has been linked with obesity as one of the risk factors for its development. The risk posed by obesity however varies depending on the indices measured.

We compared the relationship of measures of central and visceral obesity (waist circumference (WC) and waist-hip ratio (WHR) versus that of general obesity (body mass index (BMI) in the development of PAD among Nigerians with hypertension and/or diabetes mellitus. PAD was diagnosed when Ankle Brachial Index (ABI) was <0.9 in either limb.

A total of 541 patients (194 males and 347 females) were studied with a mean age of 58.4(±0.46)years. The mean BMI, WC and WHR were 27.8 (±0.222)kg/m2, 96.8 (±0.515)cm and 0.941 (±0.003) respectively. Although the mean BMI, WC and WHR were higher in patients with PAD than those without PAD, the difference was only statistically significant for WC and WHR (p=0.003 and p=0.016) but not BMI (p=0.151). However, the difference in mean BMI was statistically significant in patients <60 years (p=0.015) but not in those >60 years (p=0.953).

This study has shown that in Nigerian Africans measures of central and visceral obesity were more related to the development of PAD than BMI which is a measure of general obesity and that this lack of significance is probably due to the fact that PAD occurred more in older people as there was a significant relationship with PAD in people younger than 60 years old.