RESUMO
Atherosclerosis of the artery is the pathology of peripheral arterial disease (PAD). Clinical symptoms of PAD result from progressive narrowing of the artery in severe state. Ankle-brachial index (ABI) is a simple method for screening and evaluating the severity of PAD. After reviewing the literatures, there are no data about ABI in Thai study and journals, we tried to study the ABI measurement in general population attending in Banpong hospital. Also we wanted to find the factors that affect to ABI and the relation of PAD by using ABI measurement with other atherosclerotic diseases. Objective : 1. ABI measurement of people that we can measure at OPD in Banpong hospital. 2. Descriptive data of ABI that we set to investigate in 7 groups of 10 years age interval. 3. Analyses of ABI relate to affecting factors and other atherosclerotic diseases. Methods: We asked for volunteers to measure ABI. When they permitted, we recorded general data such as age, sex, height, weight, suspicious factors and history of other atherosclerotic diseases. Then we measured their ABI by measuring the systolic blood pressures of both ankles and arms and then calculated. After gathering data, we analyzed the data by SPSS 9.0 software for descriptive analysis, linear regression analysis and correlation studies. Results: We found that mean of ABI in general population was 1.06 [p < 0.05] which equal in both sexes. Mean ABI in difference age groups were demonstrated and the lowest mean was mean ABI in the oldest (>70 years). The factors that affected to ABI are age in negative direction, BMI and history of hyperlipidemia in positive direction which together explain ABI 6.9 % [p < 0.05]. The other atherosclerotic diseases such as IHD, MI and CVA correlate with ABI < 0.9 (present of PAD) [p < 0.05]. Conclusion : Our measurement of ABI in general population showed that mean of ABI equal to 1.06. The affecting factors that can explain ABI are aging, BMI and hyperlipidemia. ABI < 0.9 (present of PAD) correlate with IHD or MI and CVA significantly.