 | | | | Related Healthscout Videos | |
|
Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 Some 3.7 percent had a low ankle brachial index, indicating weaker blood flow to the legs. More than 17 percent had elevated levels of fibrinogen, the major protein of blood clots, and 37.9 percent had high levels of C-reactive protein.
All three of those conditions appeared to be associated with an increased risk of heart attack and sudden cardiac death, Murphy said. So, readings of all three may need to be part of a standard screening test, he said.
This study doesn't yet fully prove that point, because "we don't have longitudinal follow-up," Murphy stressed. "We want to follow these people for 10 years and see whether they have an event rate similar to that of a high-risk Framingham population."
Text Continues Below
Murphy is proposing just such a study. "Once we present these data, we want to get the study funded through the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute," he said. "We also are collecting data on a new population, which we can follow in a longitudinal study."
Meanwhile, the study "adds evidence that screening for the ankle brachial index should be done," Murphy said. "We will lobby Congress to get funding for screening the ankle brachial index. We hope to increase that screening in the primary care setting. It is not now routinely done."
The ankle brachial index test takes only about 15 minutes but is not usually done, because it is not covered by Medicare and other insurers, explained Dr. Rajoo Dhangana, a research fellow at Rhode Island Hospital and a member of the group that did the study.
The study results indicate that as many as two million Americans who would not be listed as high-risk by the Framingham rules would require further study because of an abnormal ankle brachial index, Dhangana said.
Another study expected to be reported on at the meeting found that major surgery was not always necessary for people with potentially fatal abdominal aortic aneurysms, a weakening of the main blood vessel leading from the heart.
Instead, the implantation of artery-opening tubes called stents proved effective in reducing the risk that the blood vessel might rupture, according to the study of 453 people with the condition. British physicians at Guy's and St. Thomas' Hospitals in London said that radiologists could guide the stent to the proper location.
More information
There's more on the ankle brachial index at the Vascular Disease Foundation.
Page: << Prev | 1 | 2
|
.gif)
