Peripheral circulation

[Heather__0__0]

  I am a practising Podiatrist working in England. As part of my assessment of patients who have poor circulation to their feet, I perform an ankle:brachial pressure index. Please could you tell me, if for a patient who is taking anti-hypertensive therapy,if the values would be affected? Also, if a diabetic presents with an index of 1.4 (presumably due to calcification), does this always mean that his circulation is poor, even if there are no trophic signs?

[CCF CARDIO MD APS]

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Dear Heather,
This forum is intended for general medical informational purposes only, not for
diagnosis, treatment, or research purposes.  You need to go to a medical library
(found at any major hospital or medical university) and look up the parameters for
vascular medicine.  Most cardiology texts will not address vascular disease, with
the exception of maybe an interventional cardiology text.
Here at the Cleveland Clinic the PVR parameters go like this:
     1)any value >0.9 is normal
     2)any value > or = to 0.7 represents mild disease
     3)any value = 0.5 represents at least moderate disease and warrants consideration for intervention.
OF course these values are obtained on bilaterally in three parts- the arm/thigh (illiac)ratio, the thigh/calf (SFA)ration, and the calf/ankle (tibial)ratio.
I hope this information is useful. Information provided in the heart forum is for
general purposes only. Only your physician can provided specific diagnoses and therapies.
Feel free to write back with further questions. Good luck!