Short- and long-term risk stratification in acutely ill medical patients by implementing ankle-brachial index and...

Ankle-brachial index (ABI) and carotid-femoral pulse-wave velocity (cfPWV) are well-established surrogate markers of overall cardiovascular risk. However, their prognostic value towards short- and long-term mortality in an emergency medicine setting is yet unknown.

Acutely ill medical patients systematically underwent cfPWV and ABI measurements at the emergency department of a tertiary care hospital. Patients' survival was analysed in relation to their ABI and cfPWV values at initial presentation. In total, 1080 individuals (43.7% females; 59.6 ± 17.4 years old) were enrolled. Over a median follow-up period of 24.4 months, 112 (10%) deaths were observed. 30-day mortality was 4.9% in patients with a pathological ABI and 1.4% with a normal ABI (p = .003). There was also a significant difference over the entire observational period regarding cumulative mortality (p < .001). Thirty-day mortality was 2.4% in patients with a cfPWV ≥10 m/s and .7% with a cfPWV <10 m/s (p = .025), and cumulative mortality over the whole period differed between a cfPWV ≥10 m/s and <10 m/s as well (p < .001).

In acutely ill medical patients, the noninvasive ABI and cfPWV assessment at triage level facilitates initial risk stratification in the emergency setting for short- and long-term mortality. Patients with pathological ABI and cfPWV values could thus be seen as a proxy of a sicker cohort with an overall worse polyvascular situation.