Validation of the Fast-Track Model: A Simple Tool to Assess the Severity of Diabetic Foot Ulcers.

This study aimed to validate the association between the grades of severity of diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) identified by the fast-tack model and specific outcomes. Three hundred and sixty-seven patients with new DFUs who were referred to a tertiary level diabetic foot service serving Rome, Italy, were included. The fast-track model identifies three levels of DFUs' severity: uncomplicated DFUs, including superficial wounds, not-infected wounds, and not-ischemic wounds; complicated DFUs, including ischemic wounds, infected wounds, and deep ulcers involving the muscles, tendons, or bones, and any kind of ulcers in patients on dialysis and/or with heart failure; and severely complicated DFUs, including abscesses, wet gangrene, necrotizing fasciitis, fever, or clinical signs of sepsis. Healing, minor and major amputation, hospitalization, and survival after 24 weeks of follow-up were considered. Among the included patients, 35 (9.6%) had uncomplicated DFUs, 210 (57.2%) had complicated DFUs, and 122 (33.2%) had severely complicated DFUs. The outcomes for patients with uncomplicated, complicated, and severely complicated DFUs were as follows, respectively: healing, 97.1%, 86.2%, and 69.8%; minor amputation, 2.9%, 20%, and 66.4%; major amputation, 0%, 2.9%, and 16.4%; hospitalization, 14.3%, 55.7%, and 89.3%; survival, 100%, 96.7%, and 89.3%. DFU severity was an independent predictor of healing, amputation, hospitalization, and survival. The current study shows an association between the grade of severity of DFUs identified by the fast-track model and the considered outcomes. The fast-track model may be a useful tool for assessing the severity and prognosis of DFUs.

Clinical Efficacy and Safety of Long-Term Compression in Patients with Mixed Arterial and Venous Etiology Ulcers in the Leg.

Elastic compressions are standard treatment for leg ulcers of venous etiology. The effect of compressions on ulcers of mixed (arterial or venous) etiology, however, has rarely been studied. The objective of this study was to evaluate the variation in transcutaneous oxygen pressure (TcPO2) in patients with ulcers of mixed arterial or venous etiology treated with 1 month of compression. This prospective cohort study was conducted at a university hospital in France. Patient eligibility was for those attending a consultation of a work-up of a leg ulcer of mixed arterial-venous etiology lasting at least 4 to 6 weeks. Compressions were prescribed according to the hemodynamic status and were evaluated by the ankle-brachial index and toe-brachial index using a decision-making algorithm based on French national guidelines. Quality of life was assessed using the Short-Form 36-Item (SF-36) questionnaire. In total, 32 patients were included between September 30, 2018 and May 31, 2019. A difference was observed between TcPO2 before compression (49.3 ± 13.01 mm Hg) and after 1 month (51.2 ± 15.05 mm Hg), average change 1.9 ± 2.04 mm Hg ( p = 0.025). The average ulcer size prior to compression was 49 ± 102 cm 2 versus 37 ± 94 cm 2 after 1 month of effective compression, corresponding to a reduction of 12 ± 8 cm 2 ( p < 0.001). There was a reduction in the bodily pain dimension of the SF-36. Compressions adapted to the hemodynamic status led to an increase in TcPO2, a reduction in wound size, and an improvement to bodily pain in patients with leg ulcers of mixed arterial-venous etiology.

Patient Characteristics and Preferences Regarding Anticoagulant Treatment in Venous Thromboembolic Disease.

Background: Anticoagulants are the recommended treatment for venous thromboembolic disease (VTE). The mode of anticoagulant administration may influence compliance, and therefore the effectiveness of the treatment. Unlike in atrial fibrillation or cancer-associated thrombosis, there is only limited data on patient preferences regarding the choice of anticoagulation in VTE. This study aims to evaluate patient preferences regarding anticoagulants in terms of administration: types (oral or injectable treatment) and number of doses or injections per day. Patients and Methods: This is a national survey through a questionnaire sent by e-mail to 1936 French vascular physicians between February and April 2019. They recorded the responses for each patient admitted for VTE. Results: Three hundred and eleven (response rate of 16%) of the 1936 contacted physicians responded for 364 patients. Among these, there were 167 fully completed questionnaires. Most patients (63%) express concerns about VTE and prefer oral treatment (81.5%), justified by the ease of administration (74%) and a fear of the injections (22%). When patients were taking more than three oral treatments they statistically chose injectable treatment more often (54%) than oral treatment (25%, p = 0.002). Patients who chose injectable treatment were also older (70 ± 16 vs. 58 ± 17 years old, p = 0.001). There was no statistically difference in anticoagulation preference according to gender or to the expected duration of treatment (6 weeks, 3 months, 6 months or unlimited). When oral treatment was preferred (81%), most chose oral treatment without dose adjustment and biomonitoring (74.3%). Among them, very few (5.8%) preferred a twice-daily intake. Conclusion: Patient preference in terms of anticoagulant treatment in VTE disease is in favor of oral treatment without adjustment or biomonitoring and with once-daily intake. When an injectable treatment is chosen, a prolonged duration of treatment does not seem to be a constraint for the patient. Clinical Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier [NCT03889457].

Gender Differences in the Medical Treatment of Peripheral Artery Disease.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Peripheral arterial disease is a frequent and severe disease with high cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. However, female patients appear to be undertreated. OBJECTIVES: The primary goal was to compare the prescription of optimal medical treatment (OMT) of peripheral arterial disease between women and men in primary health care. MATERIAL AND METHODS: An observational retrospective study was based on the data collected from general practitioners (GP) office in Brittany. RESULTS: The study included 100 patients, aged 71 ± 10 years old, with 24% of women. Compared to men, women received the OMT less frequently (29.2% vs. 53.9%, p = 0.038), especially after 75 years old. Antiplatelet therapy was largely prescribed (100%), statins less frequently (70.8% women vs. 85.5% men), and prescription of renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitors was still not optimal in the two genders (41.7% women vs. 61.9% men). Active smoking is important for both women and men (33% and 30% respectively). CONCLUSION: Optimal medical treatment of peripheral artery disease is insufficiently prescribed, especially in women in this region of France.

Inter-rater Reliability of a 13-Category Arterial Doppler Waveform Classification and Practice of French Vascular Physicians.

Background: Arterial Doppler Ultrasound waveform (DW) analysis allows the detection and evaluation of lower extremity peripheral artery disease. The high heterogeneity of the reported description of DW is reduced by the use of classification. However, the reliability of these classifications is either unknown or low to moderate and practices of vascular caregivers regarding the use of these classifications remain unknown. Aims: This study aims to assess the inter-observer reliability of the Saint-Bonnet classification, a 13-category DW classification. The secondary objective was to determine the utilization rate of the most common classifications and the ability of these classifications to describe DW. Methods: A national survey was conducted among all vascular physicians of French society of vascular medicine. They were invited by email to describe on a website 20 DW without and with the display of the Saint-Bonnet classification. The reliability of this classification was estimated by Fleiss' Kappa expressed with [95% confidence interval]. A semantic analysis allowed us to classify the physicians' responses according to the terms used. Finally we have evaluated for each classification the rate of misuse, i.e., the addition of a complementary term to the defined categories. Results: One hundred and ten physicians participated and only 5% of these were familiar with Saint-Bonnet classification. Fifty-four percent of vascular physicians used no classification at all. Vascular physicians used the Spronk (four-category), Descotes (five-category) and Saint-Bonnet (13-category) classifications for respectively, 31, 10, and 5%. Kappa coefficient of Fleiss (κ) was 0.546 [0.544-0.547] (p < 0.001). Reliability by category ranges from κ of 0.075 to 0.864. In multivariate analysis, the use of a classification was associated with fewer years of experience and was dependent on geographic location. Misuse rate by classification was 88, 82, and 5% using Spronk, Descotes and Saint-Bonnet classifications respectively. Conclusion: The reliability of Saint-Bonnet classification is weak to moderate by vascular physicians who are not familiar with its use. However, unlike the other classifications, it seems to be sufficiently precise so that the user does not need to complete its description. There is a significant heterogeneity in the use of arterial Doppler classifications in France.

Effectiveness of fast-track pathway for diabetic foot ulcerations.

AIM: To investigate the effectiveness of fast-track pathway (FTP) in the management of diabetic foot ulceration (DFU) after 2 years of implementation. METHODS: The study group was composed of patients who referred to a specialized DF centre due to DFUs. Those were divided in two groups: early referral (ER) and late referral (LR) patients. According to FTP, ER were considered patients who referred after 2 weeks in the case of uncomplicated non-healing ulcers (superficial, not infected, not ischemic), within 4 days in the case of complicated ulcers (ischemic, deep, mild infection) and within 24 h in the case of severely complicated ulcers (abscess, wet gangrene, fever). Healing, healing time, minor and major amputation, hospitalization, and survival were evaluated. The follow-up was 6 months. RESULTS: Two hundred patients were recruited. The mean age was 70 ± 13 years, 62.5% were male, 91% were affected by type 2 diabetes with a mean duration of 18 ± 11 years. Within the group, 79.5% had ER while 20.5% had LR. ER patients showed increased rates of healing (89.9 vs. 41.5%, p = 0.001), reduced healing time (10 vs. 16 weeks, p = 0.0002), lower rates of minor (17.6 vs. 75.6%, p < 0.0001) and major amputation (0.6 vs. 36.6%, p < 0.0001), hospitalization (47.1 vs. 82.9%, p = 0.001), and mortality (4.4 vs. 19.5%, p = 0.02) in comparison to LR. At multivariate analysis, ER was an independent predictor of healing, while LR was an independent predictor for minor and major amputation and hospitalization. CONCLUSION: After the FTP implementation, less cases of LR were reported in comparison to ER. ER was an independent predictor of positive outcomes such as healing, healing time, limb salvage, hospitalization, and survival.

Performance of the Wells score in predicting deep vein thrombosis in medical and surgical hospitalized patients with or without thromboprophylaxis: The R-WITT study.

The Wells score had shown weak performance to determine pre-test probability of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) for inpatients. So, we evaluated the impact of thromboprophylaxis on the utility of the Wells score for risk stratification of inpatients with suspected DVT. This bicentric cross-sectional study from February 1, 2018 to January 31, 2019 included consecutive medical and surgical inpatients who underwent lower limb ultrasound study for suspected DVT. Wells score clinical predictors were assessed by both ordering and vascular physicians within 24 h after clinical suspicion of DVT. Primary outcome was the Wells score's accuracy for pre-test risk stratification of suspected DVT, accounting for anticoagulation (AC) treatment (thromboprophylaxis for ⩾ 72 hours or long-term anticoagulation). We compared prevalence of proximal DVT among the low, moderate and high pre-test probability groups. The discrimination accuracy was defined as area under the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve. Of the 415 included patients, 30 (7.2%) had proximal DVT. Prevalence of proximal DVT was lower than expected in all pre-test probability groups. The prevalence in low, moderate and high pre-test probability groups was 0.0%, 3.1% and 8.2% (p = 0.22) and 1.7%, 4.2% and 25.8% (p < 0.001) for inpatients with or without AC, respectively. Area under ROC curves for discriminatory accuracy of the Wells score, for risk of proximal DVT with or without AC, was 0.72 and 0.88, respectively. The Wells score performed poorly for discrimination of risk for proximal DVT in hospitalized patients with AC but performed reasonably well among patients without AC; and showed low inter-rater reliability between physicians. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03784937.

Comparison of the Use of Arterial Doppler Waveform Classifications in Clinical Routine to Describe Lower Limb Flow.

BACKGROUND: Characterisation of arterial Doppler waveforms is a persistent problem and a source of confusion in clinical practice. Classifications have been proposed to address the problem but their efficacy in clinical practice is unknown. The aim of the present study was to compare the efficacy of the categorisation rate of Descotes and Cathignol, Spronk et al. and the simplified Saint-Bonnet classifications. METHODS: This is a multicentre prospective study where 130 patients attending a vascular arterial ultrasound were enrolled and Doppler waveform acquisition was performed at the common femoral, the popliteal, and the distal arteries at both sides. Experienced vascular specialists categorized these waveforms according to the three classifications. RESULTS: of 1033 Doppler waveforms, 793 (76.8%), 943 (91.3%) and 1014 (98.2%) waveforms could be categorized using Descotes and Cathignol, Spronk et al. and the simplified Saint-Bonnet classifications, respectively. Differences in categorisation between classifications were significant (Chi squared test, p < 0.0001). Of 19 waveforms uncategorized using the simplified Saint-Bonnet classification, 58% and 84% were not categorized using the Spronk et al. and Descotes and Cathignol classifications, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the present study suggest that the simplified Saint-Bonnet classification provides a superior categorisation rate when compared with Spronk et al. and Descotes and Cathignol classifications.

Accuracy of Acceleration Time of Distal Arteries to Diagnose Severe Peripheral Arterial Disease.

CONTEXT: Ankle-brachial index (ABI) and toe-brachial index (TBI) are the recommended tests for the diagnosis of lower extremity peripheral artery disease (PAD) and the assessment of its severity, whereas Doppler ultrasound (DUS) is usually used to localize vascular lesions. However, the performance of DUS as an alternative to TBI and ABI measurement is unknown. OBJECTIVE: The goals were (i) to evaluate the correlation between DUS parameters of distal arteries of the lower extremities with TBI in patients with PAD; (ii) to evaluate the correlation between DUS parameters of distal arteries with ABI; and (iii) to assess the diagnostic accuracy of maximal acceleration time of pedal arteries to detect toe pressure ≤30 mmHg. METHODS: An observational retrospective study was conducted for 1 year on patients with the diagnosis of PAD on DUS. Demographic data, ABI, TBI, and DUS parameters of the dorsal pedis and lateral plantar arteries (DPA and LPA) were recorded. RESULTS: Seventy-seven patients with 88 limbs were included, aged 69 [interquartile range: 11 years] with 28.6% of diabetic patients. The highest acceleration time of either DPA or LPA (ATmax) was the most correlated to TBI on both univariate (r = -0.78, p < 0.0001) and multivariate analysis (p < 0.0001). DUS parameters had a weaker correlation with ABI. ATmax > 215 ms showed high diagnosis accuracy to a toe pressure of 30 mmHg or less [sensitivity of 86% [0.57-0.98] and negative predictive value of 97% [0.89-1.00]]. CONCLUSION: ATmax demonstrates a high correlation with TBI in patients with PAD, and high diagnostic accuracy for detection of critical limb ischemia. Based on these results, ATmax can represent the next step in evaluating PAD severity with DUS, in patients with advanced lower extremity PAD.

Normative and pathological values of hemodynamic and Doppler ultrasound arterial findings in children.

Doppler ultrasound is an effective, useful and remarkably powerful tool in pediatric imaging. If possible, its use is always favored to avoid exposure to radiation or sedatives. By waveform spectrum analysis, Doppler ultrasound reveals information on blood flow and details on normal physiology and pathological processes undiscernible from gray-scale imaging alone. However, Doppler ultrasound remains underused, largely due to the difficult interpretation of changes in Doppler waveforms during childhood. This article provides a narrative review of the literature regarding the normative values and the physiological arterial changes through childhood according to age, weight or height, as well as frequent pathological arterial findings in children, classified by arterial territory.