PURPOSE

To examine the relationship between objective treadmill test outcomes and subjective symptom outcomes among patients with claudication treated with stent revascularization (ST) compared with supervised exercise (SE).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Five scales of the Peripheral Artery Questionnaire and Walking Impairment Questionnaire were correlated with peak walking time and treadmill claudication onset time.

RESULTS

The correlation between change in disease-specific quality of life (QOL) and change in peak walking time differed according to treatment group, with statistically significant correlations for all five scales for the ST group and weaker trends for the SE group, only one of which was statistically significant. In contrast, improvements in disease-specific QOL correlated well with increases in claudication onset time, with no significant interaction with treatment group for any of the five scales.

CONCLUSIONS

Disease-specific QOL results at 6 months in the Claudication: Exercise Vs. Endoluminal Revascularization (CLEVER) study show that improved maximal treadmill walking in patients with claudication treated with SE correlated poorly with self-reported symptom relief. Conversely, patients treated with ST showed good correlation between improved maximal treadmill walking and self-reported symptom improvement. The correlation between claudication onset time and self-reported symptom relief was good across treatment groups. This finding indicates that traditional objective treadmill test outcomes may not correlate well with symptom relief in patients with claudication. Future studies should investigate these data and improve understanding of patient relevance of traditional objective treadmill-based treatment outcomes.