[Unidentified arteriopathy: an epidemiological study. The preliminary results]

The importance of the social and medical impact of arteriosclerotic disease fully justifies a series of studies focused on improving knowledge of this pathology before symptoms become manifest, so as to orientate treatment increasingly towards prevention. The aim of this study-of which the authors now report the preliminary results-was to establish the incidence of unidentified lower limb arteriopathy in the general population and to evaluate the relations between this and the possible presence of risk factors. The authors therefore decided to evaluate patients attending outpatient General Surgery clinic for symptoms manifestly not related to lower limb vascular pathology (arterial or venous). Patients suffering from any arterial disease were likewise excluded from the study. The importance of performing a large-scale epidemiological study (sample size, stratification of population studied, vast geographic area, etc.) persuaded the authors to adopt a multi-centre structure. Twelve General Surgery departments at hospitals in the Veneto area were involved: each was required to evaluate an average of 150 patients, giving a total of 1950 subjects. The method of study chosen was the residual pressure index (RPI) measured using Doppler velocimetry. Patients were divided into two study groups: patients in Group A (with pathological RPI) were re-evaluated after correction for risk factors, integrated or not by medical treatment. Preliminary results relating to 46% of the total sample show that 26.7% of the subjects present pathological RPI. The evaluation of risk factors and the comparison of their presence in the two groups (A--pathological patients, B--non-pathological subjects) reveals significant differences regarding diabetes and hypertension.