Ankle-brachial index and peripheral arterial disease.

Patients with peripheral arterial disease including those with intermittent claudication have a high risk for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular morbidity and mortality. The outcome of patients with intermittent claudication is less limited by local complications in the leg than by the systemic complications of coronary and cerebral vessels. About 30 % of these patients will die within 5 years, three-quarters of them due to vascular events. Analyses using data of the KORA Study 2004/2005 (F3), a follow-up examination of the participants of the MONICA Survey 1994/95 (S3), will try to identify biochemical as well as genetic risk factors for peripheral arterial disease. The anti-atherogenic apolipoprotein A-IV will be one of our candidates of interest.