The relationship between lower extremity arterial properties and aortic stiffness and their effect on cardiovascular risk

The ratio of systolic blood pressure at the ankle to arm systolic pressure (ankle- brachial index - ABI) is used in the diagnosis of peripheral vascular disease. While its reduced value suggests obstruction of the arterial lumen, an abnormally elevated value is due to incompressibility of lower extremity arteries. While increased stiffness of the aorta, measured as carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity, is able to predict cardiovascular risk, increased pulse wave velocity of the leg arteries has no independent predictive value. Despite that, incompressibility of lower extremity arteries, diagnosed using ABI measurement, is independently associated with increased cardiovascular risk. The aim of our study was to determine the relationship between the characteristics of lower limb arteries and aortic stiffness, and their impact on cardiovascular risk. Our study showed that the results of oscillometric and Doppler ABI measurement methods are not interchangeable, because the oscillometric method systematically overestimates low values and underestimates high ABI values. Therefore, the diagnosis of lower limb arteries incompressibility should be based on the Doppler method of ABI measurement. Furthermore, we showed that age and cardiovascular risk factors have only a small effect on lower extremity arteries, but a..