Does endothelial function measured by brachial artery flow-mediated dilation correlate with the clinical severity of peripheral arterial disease?
Endothelial dysfunction is present in patients with peripheral arterial disease but does not appear to correlate with the clinical severity of the disease.
OBJECTIVES: To determine the relationship between endothelial function by means of brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (BAFMD) and the clinical severity of peripheral arterial disease (PAD). METHODS AND RESULTS: We examined the brachial artery diameter by ultrasound, before and after ischemia of the arm in 3 groups of participants- group A: healthy individuals under 30 years, without cardiovascular risk factors (n = 30); group B: patients with PAD and ischemic claudication (n = 30); and group C: patients with critical leg ischemia (n = 20). There were no differences between groups B and C, in regard to age, sex, and main cardiovascular risk factor. The BAFMD was 9.9% in group A compared with 5.5% in the pooled patients group (B + C; P .05). Correlation coefficient of ankle-brachial index/BAFMD was r = .1; P = .49. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with PAD present endothelial dysfunction, but this does not seem to determine the severity of the disease.
Maldonado et al. (Tue,) studied this question.
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