Objective To evaluate the feasibility of detecting
peripheral artery disease (PAD) using
ankle-brachial index (ABI) determined by an
electronic sphygmomanometer in
patients with
type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM).
Method The brachial
blood pressure and the
ankle blood pressure were measured in each
upper limbs and
lower limbs by the
Doppler ultrasound method and the
electronic sphygmomanometer method in fifty-nine DM
patients who were selected from Department of Geriatric
Endocrinology of
General Hospital of PLA. ABI was calculated with the formula of ABI =
ankle systolic
blood pressure/ brachial systolic
blood pressure. The measurement data were expressed as x?s. Then the data of
systolic pressure and ABI were analyzed by paired
Student's t tests and correlations. The related
diagnosis criteria of PAD, such as
sensitivity,
specificity,
positive predictive value,
negative predictive value, and the global accuracy were calculated. Furthermore, the correlation of brachial
blood pressure as measured by the
electronic sphygmomanometer and the
mercury column
sphygmomanometer was compared. Results There were no significant differences but good correlations between the data of systolic
pressures and ABI obtained as measured by two
methods. The correlation for
systolic pressure was right
upper limbs 0.92, P