Assessment of Ankle Brachial Index in Diabetic patients in Urban area of West India.

Background & Objectives:-Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) is a manifestation of Diabetes Mellitus that is asymptomatic to begin with. There is always a need of cost effective non-invasive technique to quantify this problem. The aim of the study was to determine its prevalence in diabetics of this region by a cross sectional study using Ankle Brachial Index (ABI) as a non-invasive tool. Method:-110 diabetic patients of either sex presenting to medicine OPD were evaluated subjectively by questionnaires .Vascular Doppler was used to derive ratio of ankle pressure to brachial pressure (ABI) using standard protocol.ABI<0.9 was defined as PAD. Results: - Result revealed 46% prevalence of symptoms for PAD in study group. Low ABI prevailed in 35% of subjects more so in females (39 %) than males (31 %), more in symptomatic (55 %) subjects than asymptomatic (17 %) and further lowering of ABI with increasing duration of disease. Interpretation & Conclusion:-This study showed high prevalence of PAD in our region in diabetics with female disadvantage, positive correlation with presence of PAD symptom and cumulative effect of disease. It proved ABI as a non-invasive and reliable screening tool for PAD in our region requiring further larger study for its consolidation.