ABSTRACT
Atherosclerosis of peripheral arteries occurs in 12% of individuals with 65 years of age or older. Peripheral arterial disease [PAD] is one of the chronic diseases that is responsible for a significant number of mortality or morbidity in the developed countries. At least 28% of these patients have coronary heart diseases and 10% of them have cerebrovascular diseases. In addition, PAD is an independent predictor of both all causes and cardiovascular mortality. of this study is to calculate agreement between the two diagnostic tests of PAD, ankle brachial index [ABI] and ultrasound duplexes scanning [UDS] and to evaluate the results of these tests against symptoms of patients we designed this study on PAD patients. Forty symptomatic PAD patients that referred to the department of Sonography to complete their work up were enrolled in this validation study. Demographic characteristics, risk factors, symptoms, ABI and UDS measurements were recorded. Based on symptoms, ABI and UDS findings, patients were divided in to four groups and were compared with each other. Finally, agreement and association of these findings were analyzed. 32 patients [80%] were men with the mean age of 62 +/- 12.8 years [26-90]. Smoking [75%] and hypertension [100%] were the most common risk factors in men and women respectively and diabetes was ranked as the second common risk factor had the second degree in both genders. Agreement between ABI and UDS in men was significant, but was not significant in women. [P=0.02] Agreement between symptoms and ABI was significant [P=0.04] and between symptoms and UDS was not significant [P=0.037]. ABI is an appropriate tool for estimating the severity of arterial stenosis and lower extremity circulation