Ankle–brachial index predicts stroke in the general population in addition to classical risk factors

Abstract: Background: Predictors of future stroke events gain importance in vascular medicine. Herein, we investigated the value of the ankle-brachial index (ABI), a simple non-invasive marker of atherosclerosis, as stroke predictor in addition to established risk factors that are part of the Framingham risk score (FRS).Methods: 4299 subjects from the population-based Heinz Nixdorf Recall study (45–75 years; 47.3% men) without previous stroke, coronary heart disease or myocardial infarcts were followed up for ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke events over 109.0 ± 23.3 months. Cox proportional hazard regressions were used to evaluate ABI as stroke predictor in addition to established vascular risk factors (age, sex, systolic blood pressure, LDL, HDL, diabetes, smoking).Results: 104 incident strokes (93 ischemic) occurred (incidence rate: 2.69/1000 person-years). Subjects suffering stroke had significantly lower ABI values at baseline than the remaining subjects (1.03 ± 0.22 vs. 1.13 ± 0.14, p  13%) and intermediate (8–13%) FRS tercile. In these subjects, stroke incidence was 28.13 and 8.13/1000 person-years, respectively, for ABI 

Source: Atherosclerosis - March 20, 2014 Category: Cardiology Authors: Janine Gronewold, Dirk M. Hermann, Nils Lehmann, Knut Kröger, Karl Lauterbach, Klaus Berger, Christian Weimar, Hagen I.M. Kälsch, Susanne Moebus, Karl-Heinz Jöckel, Marcus Bauer, Raimund Erbel, Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study Investigative Group Tags: Clinical & Population Research - Epidemiology, Biomarkers, Nutrition Source Type: research