Predictive value of the ankle-brachial index in the evaluation of intermittent claudication

• Published in: Revista do Hospital das Clinicás 2000-04, Vol.55 (2), p.61-64
• Main Authors: Wolosker, N, Rosoky, R A, Nakano, L, Basyches, M, Puech-Leão, P
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ankle - blood supply; Brachial Artery - physiopathology; Hemodynamics; Humans; Intermittent Claudication - physiopathology; MEDICINE, GENERAL & INTERNAL; Prognosis; Prospective Studies; Regional Blood Flow; Sensitivity and Specificity
• ISSN: 0041-8781; 1678-9903; 0041-8781
• DOI: 10.1590/S0041-87812000000200005

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the ankle-brachial index (ABI) could be used to predict the prognosis for a patient with intermittent claudication (IC). We studied 611 patients prospectively during 28 months of follow-up. We analyzed the predictive power of using various levels of ABI - 0.30 to 0.70 at 0.05 increments - in terms of the measure's specificity (association with a favorable outcome after exercise rehabilitation therapy) and sensitivity (association with a poor outcome after exercise rehabilitation therapy). We found that using an ABI of 0.30 as a cut-off value produced the lowest margin of error overall, but the predictive power was still low with respect to identifying the patients with a poor prognosis after non-aggressive therapeutic treatment. Further study is needed to perhaps identify a second factor that could increase the sensitivity of the test.