BACKGROUND Epidemiological data show that most community-dwelling men and women with lower-extremity peripheral arterial disease (PAD) do not have typical symptoms of intermittent claudication. We compared the prevalence of intermittent claudication, leg symptoms other than intermittent claudication, and absence of exertional leg symptoms between patients with PAD identified from a blood flow l...

BACKGROUND If a validated questionnaire, when applied to patients reporting with symptoms of intermittent claudication, could adequately discriminate between those with and without peripheral arterial disease, GPs could avoid the diagnostic measurement of the ankle brachial index. AIM To investigate the Edinburgh Claudication Questionnaire (ECQ) in general practice and to develop a clinical d...

Brachial artery pulse pressure is a predictor of (cardiovascular) morbidity, but its determinants in individuals with Type II diabetes and untreated mild hypertension have not been elucidated. We therefore cross-sectionally investigated determinants of brachial artery mean 24 h pulse pressure in 60 individuals (40 males; age, mean +/- S.D., 57.8 +/- 7.5 years) with Type II diabetes [median diab...

Previous work from our laboratory demonstrated that isometric handgrip (IHG) training improved local, endothelium-dependent vasodilation in medicated hypertensives [McGowan CL (PhD Thesis), 2006; McGowan et al. Physiologist 47: 285, 2004]. We investigated whether changes in the capacity of smooth muscle to dilate (regardless of endothelial factors) influenced this training-induced change, and w...

This study tests the hypothesis that high brachial pulse pressure might constitute preclinical cardiovascular disease, rather than a risk factor. We studied 1250 subjects (472 nonobese normotensive [<135/80 mm Hg] and 778 untreated hypertensive). Central pulse pressure was estimated from brachial pulse pressure and age and divided by stroke volume (PP/SV). Brachial pulse pressure was considered...

BACKGROUND The present study analyses the relation between smoking status and the parameters used to assess vascular structure and function. METHODS This cross-sectional, multi-centre study involved a random sample of 1553 participants from the EVIDENT study. MEASUREMENTS The smoking status, peripheral augmentation index and ankle-brachial index were measured in all participants. In a small...

BACKGROUND Ankle-brachial-Index (ABI) measured by manual Dopplersonography is an easily assessable marker of global cardiovascular risk. The aim of this study was to establish novel photo-plethysmography (PPG)-based ABI assessments in an epidemiologic context and to compare its results with those of Doppler. METHODS Two devices for PPG-based ABI assessments (Vicorder, Vascular Explorer) were ...