OBJECTIVES To determine the level of agreement between a 'conventional' Ankle-Brachial Index (ABI) measurement (using Doppler and mercury sphygmomanometer taken by a research nurse) and a 'pragmatic' ABI measure (using an oscillometric device taken by a practice nurse) in primary care. To ascertain the utility of a pragmatic ABI measure for the diagnosis of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) in ...

OBJECTIVES This study sought to compare survival of patients with poorly compressible arteries (PCA) to those with a normal ankle-brachial index (ABI) and those with peripheral arterial disease (PAD). BACKGROUND Limited data are available regarding survival in patients with PCA identified in the clinical setting by noninvasive lower extremity arterial evaluation. METHODS We conducted a hist...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the accuracy of the ankle brachial index (ABI) measured with the SCVL(®) ("screening cardiovascular lab"; GenNov, Paris, France), an automated device with synchronized arm and ankle cuffs with an automatic ABI calculation. METHODS Patients were consecutively included in a cardiovascular prevention unit if they presented with at least two cardiovascular risk factors. ABI ...

OBJECTIVES We compared the perceptual auditory abilities of 21 children with suspected cochlear nerve deficiency (CND) and a surgically verified absent cochlear nerve (CN) who first underwent cochlear implantation (CI) and subsequently underwent auditory brainstem implantation (ABI). METHODS In this retrospective cohort study, from 2000 to 2011, 21 children initially underwent CI at an outsid...

The Abi protein family consists of putative membrane-bound metalloproteases. While they are involved in membrane anchoring of proteins in eukaryotes, little is known about their function in prokaryotes. In some known bacteriocin loci, Abi genes have been found downstream of bacteriocin structural genes (e.g., pln locus from Lactobacillus plantarum and sag locus from Streptococcus pyogenes), whe...

BACKGROUND Patients with or at high risk of cardiovascular disease have a poor functional capacity; however, the influence of association among intermittent claudication (IC), abnormal ankle-brachial index (ABI), and physical activity level on functional capacity of these patients has not been fully studied. OBJECTIVE The primary objective of this study was to investigate the association betw...

BACKGROUND It is commonly acknowledged that the ability to use the ankle-brachial index (ABI), a reliable way to diagnose atherosclerosis, decreases with age in the general population. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between resting ABI and age in different populations. METHODS 674 physically active participants with (active high risk, ACTHR) or without (active low ris...

BACKGROUND Although exertional leg pain is a hallmark of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and can occur in persons without PAD, symptom variation has received inadequate attention. METHODS AND RESULTS Three cohort studies were combined for cross-sectional analysis. The San Diego Claudication Questionnaire assessed exertional leg pain. PAD was defined as ankle brachial index (ABI) < or =0.90 ...

BACKGROUND Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD) remains the least recognized form of atherosclerosis. The Ankle-Brachial Index (ABI) has emerged as one of the potent markers of diffuse atherosclerosis, cardiovascular (CV) risk, and overall survival in general public, especially in diabetics. The important reason for the lack of early diagnosis is the non-availability of a test that is easy to perf...

OBJECTIVE Although prior studies report a relationship between elevated lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) and incident cardiovascular disease, the prospective association of Lp-PLA2 with incident peripheral arterial disease (PAD) has not been studied. We investigated the association between Lp-PLA2 mass and activity and the risk of developing clinical PAD and low ankle-brachial ...