Can vascular pathology in cerebral and coronary fields predict peripheral artery disease in a cohort of diabetic patients?

Abstract

Objective: To find out whether peripheral artery disease followed the same pattern, set of risk factors and indicators as macro vascular disease in the coronary arteries and cerebral arteries disease. Study design: This was a randomized cross sectional retrospective analysis. Place and duration: Study was carried out at The Diabetes Management Center at The Services Hospital Lahore, during June 1999 to June 2001. Patients and methods: A total of 580 patients were selected from the diabetic data base that had absent pulsations in the any of the four arteries of the lower limbs. Another set of 580 diabetics with presence of pulsations in all the arteries of the lower and upper limbs was randomly selected to match the cases. Results: Diabetics with peripheral vascular disease had a significant positive history of past CVA and past MI. Conclusion: Presence of peripheral vascular disease is significantly associated with presence of history of past CVA and past MI, raised systolic BP, diastolic BP, and mean BP and increased proteinurea.