Low ankle-brachial index predicts early risk of recurrent stroke in patients with acute cerebral ischemia.

OBJECTIVE

Low ankle-brachial blood pressure index (ABI) identifies patients with symptomatic and asymptomatic peripheral arterial disease (PAD). We sought to investigate the association of low ABI with early risk of stroke recurrence in patients with acute cerebral ischemia (ACI) and without history of symptomatic PAD.

METHODS

Consecutive patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) or transient ischemic attack (TIA) and no previous history of PAD were prospectively evaluated with ABI measurements. Demographic characteristics, vascular risk factors and secondary prevention therapies were documented. An ABI ≤0.90 in either leg was considered as evidence of asymptomatic PAD, and an ABI >0.90 was considered as normal. Patients with elevated ABI (>1.30) were excluded. The outcome of interest was recurrent stroke during 30-day follow-up.

RESULTS

A total of 176 patients with acute cerebral ischemia (mean age 64±14 years, 59.1% men, 76.7% AIS) were evaluated. Asymptomatic PAD was detected in 14.8% (95%CI: 10.2-20.8%) of the studied population. The following factors were independently associated with low ABI on multivariate logistic regression models, after adjustment for potential confounders: coronary artery disease (p=0.008), diabetes mellitus (p=0.017) and increasing age (p=0.042). The cumulative 30-day recurrence rate was higher in patients with low ABI (19.2%; 95%CI: 4.1-34.3) compared to the rest (3.3%; 95%CI: 0.4-6.2%; p=0.001). Atherothrombotic stroke (ASCO grade I; p<0.001), increasing age (p=0.002) and low ABI (p=0.004) were independent predictors of stroke recurrence on multivariate Cox regression models adjusting for confounders.

CONCLUSIONS

Low ABI appears to be associated with a higher risk of early recurrent stroke in patients with ACI and no history of symptomatic PAD.