Predictive value of ankle brachial index in patients with acute ischaemic stroke.

BACKGROUND The ankle brachial index (ABI) is a known measure of lower-limb peripheral artery disease (PAD), as well as a marker for other cardiovascular disease events. OBJECTIVE Our goal was to compare the prevalence of abnormal ABI scores (ABI or=3 (33.8% vs. 7.1%, P = 0.001) and large-artery atherosclerosis (LAA) (43.5% vs. 19.4%, P = 0.015). Multivariate analyses (logistic regression) only identified VRF > 3 as independently associated with low ABI (OR: 6.46; 1.81-23.02; P = 0.004). Abnormal ABI was associated with stroke recurrence (32.1% vs. 13.6%, P = 0.027) and the appearance of any major vascular event (50.0% vs. 17.0%, P < 0.001). In the logistic regression analysis, adjusted for VRF, age, and LAA, ABI remained as an independent predictor of vascular events (HR 3.99; 1.90-8.41 P < 0.001). CONCLUSION Abnormal ABI was associated with classical risk factors, especially hypertension. The measurement of ABI amongst patients with IS appeared to be useful to identify high-risk patients and plan adequate prevention therapies.