Peripheral artery disease in patients with coronary artery disease.

The prevalence of peripheral vascular disease in patients with coronary artery disease has been investigated in many different ways and depends on the diagnostic methods and the definition of the atherosclerotic manifestations in the different vascular beds. In this study we used the non-invasive methods digital volume pulse plethysmography and ankle and toe blood pressure measurements to identify arterial abnormalities in the lower limbs in 58 patients (49 males and 9 females; age 37-72 years) examined with coronary angiography. The prevalence of peripheral artery disease was 22%, in agreement with the results of most previous investigations. There was a tendency towards increasing prevalence of peripheral artery disease with more advanced coronary artery disease: 14% of the patients with no or minimal coronary atheromotous lesions, 18% of the patients with moderate coronary atheromotous lesions and 32% of the patients with marked coronary atheromotous disease. For this reason a non-invasive investigation of the peripheral arterial circulation should be included early in the clinical consideration of patients with chest pain or similar symptoms suggesting coronary heart disease. Toe pressure measurement appears to be the most appropriate technique being rather simple in management and also in evaluation of results.