[Relevance of cardiovascular disease risk and abnormal ankle brachial index in hypertensive patients:a multicentre study].

Objective: To evaluate the relevance of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and abnormal ankle brachial index (ABI) in high-risk and very high-risk hypertensive patients and explore the strategies of prevention and treatment for peripheral arterial disease according to the CVD risk.

Methods: Between December 2008 and May 2009, the cross-sectional study investigated the prevalence of abnormal ABI (ABI < 0.90) in 2674 community-dwelling, hypertensive patients, aged ≥ 40 years old, without coronary heart disease, stroke/transient ischemic attack or known arteriosclerosis, from 18 centers in China. The relevant data were acquired through history, physical examination, laboratory examinations and other diagnostic tests.

Results: The number of subjects available for the full-analysis set was 2615. There was a rising prevalence of abnormal ABI with the advancing age in high-risk hypertensive patients and very high-risk ones (P < 0.001). Compared with the high-risk group, the 60 years (1.3% vs 5.1%) and 70 years (4.1% vs 10.5%) age sub-groups of the very high-risk group had a significantly higher prevalence of abnormal ABI (P < 0.05). After adjusting for such factors as investigational center, target organ damage, CVD risk and demographics, an unconditional Logistic regression model revealed that CVD risk was positively correlated with abnormal ABI (odds ratio 1.874, 95% confidence interval 1.153 - 3.045, P = 0.0112). A very high-risk hypertensive patient was 1.874 times more likely than a high-risk one to have an abnormal ABI.

Conclusion: A high-risk hypertensive patient with a higher CVD risk is more prone to have an abnormal ABI. Among the high-risk hypertensive patients in the 60 years and 70 years age sub-groups, such a positive correlation is especially pronounced.