[The relationship between ankle brachial index and all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality in Chinese metabolic syndrome male cohort].

OBJECTIVE

Ankle brachial index (ABI) is thought to be an efficient means of objectively assessing the potency of lower extremity arterial system. This study is aimed to evaluate the relationship between ABI and cardiovascular disease CVD mortality in Chinese male patients with metabolic syndrome (MS).

METHODS

1224 Chinese male patients with MS were selected from Beijing and Shanghai and the baseline examinations were carried out. All the participants were divided into 2 main groups: ABI < or = 0.9 (n = 268) and ABI 0.9 - 1.4 (n = 956). and they were followed up for (13.2 +/- 2.7) months.

RESULTS

As to baseline characteristics, age, systolic blood pressure (SBP), hypertensive disease and diabetes mellitus morbidity and smoking history had significant difference between the 2 groups (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01). All-cause mortality and CVD mortality decreased gradually while the ABI increased from 0.4 to 1.4. With Cox regression analysis, relative ratio (RR) value of all-cause mortality and CVD mortality also showed the decreasing trend with the rising of ABI.

CONCLUSION

In Chinese male patients with MS, ABI is one of the most important parameters in indicating possible prognosis and foreseeing all-cause and CVD mortality. Male subjects with relatively old age, higher systolic blood pressure, hypertensive disease and diabetes mellitus morbidity, smoking history may be associated with lower ABI (< or = 0.9) and relatively higher all-cause and CVD mortality. Our results suggest the urgent need for frequent measurement of the ABI in clinical practice before diagnosing peripheral artery disease and making therapeutic decision, especially in some high-risk population such as male patients with MS.