Biomedical Letters

Correlation of Ankle Brachial Index and Severity of Coronary Artery Diseases

Muhammad Arif Anwar1, Khawar Ali Shahzad2, Muhammad Ahmed Javed3, MD Ruhul Amin3, Ma Gen Shan*1

1Department of Cardiology, The Affiliated Zhong Da Hospital of Southeast University, No. 87 Dingjiaqiao, Nanjing, China

2Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical School, Southeast University, No. 87 Dingjiaqiao, Nanjing, China

3School of medicine, Southeast University, No. 87 Dingjiaqiao, Nanjing 210009, China

Abstract

The sharing of a similar network of systemic vasculature, detection of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) indicates the presence of a high risk of coronary heart diseases (CAD). PAD, diagnosed with a low value of Ankle-Brachial Index (ABI) such as ≤0.90, has a strong correlation with the complexity of coronary heart diseases. A total of 62 patients were recruited in this prospective study. The ABI Assessment, coronary artery angiography (CAG) and baseline data was collected. SYNTAX score was used to quantify the CAD severity. Spearman’s correlation was used for statistical analysis. Patients diagnosed with CAD had lower values of ABI and high values of SYNTAX score calculated from CAG reports, the gold standard for diagnosing ischemic heart diseases (IHD). Meanwhile, patients with high ABI value and low SYNTAX score had less severe CAD, which demonstrates a strong correlation between ABI and SYNTAX score. The correlation coefficient of Spearman’s rho for ABI and SYNTAX score is 0.886, which was highly significant (p < 0.0001). The lower value of ABI especially ≤0.90 is associated with high risk of CAD, confirmed by gold standard CAG. In a nutshell, patients having significantly lower ABI value which is cost-effective and non-invasive diagnostic modality indicates high-risk coronary artery diseases. These patients can be further referred to more definitive diagnostic and therapeutic approach such as CAG and PCI.

Keywords: Ankle-brachial index, coronary artery diseases, primary coronary intervention, peripheral arterial disease, SYNTAX score.

Received December 26, 2016 Revised January 24, 2017 Accepted February 13, 2017

*Correspondence: Ma Gen Shan Email magenshan@hotmail.com Contact: +8613002580569