Frequency Of Peripheral Arterial Disease Among Patients With Diabetes Mellitus Foot Syndrome In A Tertiary Hospital In Lagos, Nigeria

ABSTRACT

Diabetes Mellitus Foot Syndrome (DMFS) occurs against a background infection, neuropathy and peripheral arterial disease (PAD). Clinical assessment often under diagnoses PAD. However, the use of a hand held Doppler 10 calculate the ankle brachial index (ABI) is an inexpensive, non- invasive and quantitative method of determining the presence of PAD. A retrospective analysis of patients with DMFS who had PAD assessment with a hand held Doppler was done. Data retrieved from the doppler report included age, gender, presence of hypertension, smoking status and ankle brachial index (ABI). PAD was defined as ABI of < 0.9 or >1.3. Data was analyzed using Epi info version 3.4.3. A p < 0.05 was taken significant. There were 73 patients with DMFS, 28 (38.4%) females and 45 (61.6%) males. Mean (SD) age was 62.4 (11.1) years. Hypertension was present in 30 (41.1%) and 8 (11.0%) were smokers. PAD was present in 39 (53.4%) patients. Of the 39 patients with PAD, 11 (28.2%) had ABI >1.3. Age, gender, smoking status and history of hypertension were not associated with PAD (p1.3. Hand held Doppler devices should be made available, at least in tertiary hospitals in resource poor settings so as to improve management of DMFS.