[Color Doppler ultrasound study on pathological changes of lower extremity arteries in patients with metabolic syndrome].

OBJECTIVE To explore the pathological changes of lower extremity arteries of patients with metabolic syndrome. METHODS Fifty patients with metabolic syndrome (MS) and 30 normal volunteers were included in this study. The inner diameters, peak systolic velocities and intima-media thicknesses of the lower extremity arteries, and the sizes and numbers of the plaques in the lower extremity arteries were obtained with color Doppler ultrasound (CDU). RESULTS In the fifty MS patients, the intima-media thicknesses of forty-one were thicker than 1.1 mm and thirty-three had plaques which had brought stenosis in different degrees. The intima-media thicknesses of the common femoral, popliteal and posterior tibial arteries in the MS patients were significantly thicker than those in the normal volunteers (P<0.01 or P<0.05), and a greater number of plaques in the lower extremity arteries were observed in the patients, as compared with the normal volunteers (P<0.01). CONCLUSION Various pathological changes had taken place in the lower extremity arteries of the MS patients. The sites and degrees of the lower extremity arterial diseases in MS patients can be definitely detected with CDU.