Is the ankle-brachial index directly associated with current glycemic control in diabetic patients?

Patients and methods: This cross-sectional study included a total of 136 (41 males, 95 females; mean age 54.4±8.4 years; range, 33 to 76 years) type 2 diabetic patients. Demographic, metabolic characteristics, laboratory data and vascular complication status of the patients were recorded. For the ABI measurement, blood pressure on ankle posterior tibialis artery was measured using hand Doppler.

Results: The mean duration of diabetes was 118.6±89.2 months and the mean HbA1c value was 8.03±1.7%. According to the ABI values, only one patient was in the ABI <0.9 group. Of our patients, 65.6% were within ABI values of 0.9-1.4 (normal) and 33.5% were within ABI values of >1.4 (high) group. According to the HbA1c values (<7%, 7-9% and >9%), the ABI value was not statistically significantly different (p=0.472). The ABI value was only correlated with triglyceride (r= -0.173 p=0.049), total cholesterol (r= -0.214 p=0.014), and glomerular filtration rate (r=0.248 p=0.006). The mean HbA1c value was 8.3% in the group whose ABI value was between 0.9-1.4, while the mean HbA1c level value was 7.5% in the group whose ABI value was ABI >1.4 (p=0.01).

Conclusion: In our study, the ABI value was not found to be correlated with the HbA1c value. The HbA1c value was lower in the group whose ABI values were higher.