[Relationship between the ankle-arm index determined by Doppler ultrasonography and cardiovascular outcomes and amputations, in a group of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus from the Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán].

Background: An ankle/arm index < 0.90 and ≥ 1.41 is considered as abnormal. This study was aimed to investigate the prevalence of peripheral arterial disease through the identification of the ankle/arm index using Doppler ultrasound, and the possible association between pathological ankle/arm index and the micro- and macrovascular complications of diabetes and amputation.

Methods: The ankle/arm index was determined in outpatient type 2 diabetic subjects. There were the following variables: age and cardiovascular outcomes. To find if the ankle/arm index is related to the cardiovascular outcomes or with the presence of micro- or macrovascular complications we determined the index of correlation of Pearson and also used logistic regression methods to analyze the association between ankle/arm index with the categorical variables.

Results: We calculated the ankle/arm index in 242 patients. The prevalence of ischemic ankle/arm index (< 0.90) was 13.6%. The Pearson correlation coefficient for ankle/arm index pathological and cardiovascular outcomes was 0.180 (p = 0.005), amputation 0.130 (p < 0.05), retinopathy 0.132 (p < 0.05), and nephropathy 0.158 (p = 0.01). In logistic regression analysis, the factors associated with pathological ankle/arm index were age > 51 years, cardiovascular outcomes, and amputation. With the Mann Whitney U test we found that a relationship exists between pathological and amputation iliotibial band (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: Diabetic patients have a high prevalence of pathological ankle/arm index.