Internists Not Using Simple Test (Ankle-Brachial Index) For Peripheral Artery Disease
Despite poor awareness and a lack of training on handling peripheral artery disease, internists can and should be able to recognize the symptoms and manage 95% of such cases. Experts advise using the ankle-brachial index as a quick and effective diagnostic method.
But internists often don’t. As was reported in ACP Internist‘s previous cover story on the subject, the ankle-brachial index can be a major part of preventing peripheral artery disease, itself a major predictor of strokes and heart attacks, over and above the Framingham risk score.
The ankle-brachial index is the ratio of the ankle to the arm systolic pressure. A ratio of 0.90 or less indicates peripheral artery disease. Its sensitivity is 79% to 95%, and its specificity is 95% to 100%. It takes less than five minutes to perform in the office.
Yet, among the 85 respondents, 36 (42.35%) said “It’s a quick and easy test.” Another 27 (31.76%) thought, “It’s difficult to fit into the standard visit.” The final 22 (25.88%) said, “I don’t use the ABI to screen patients for PAD.” Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
