Prog Nostic Value of the Ankle-Brachial Index in Patients Undergoing Drug-Eluting Stent Implantation

Aim: limited data are available regarding the prognostic value of the brachial-ankle index (abi) in patients with a history of drug-eluting stent (des) implantation. this study sought to determine the relationship between the abi and coronary events in patients with des. methods: a total of 322 patients who underwent both des implantation and abi measurement during initial hospitalization were reviewed. cardiovascular events,including cardiac death,non-fatal acute myocardial infarction and coronary revascularization,were assessed. results: during the mean follow-up period of 298±58 days,there were 32 cases of cardiovascular events (9.9%). the patients with a lower abi had more events (2.8% in the highest tertile versus 10.3% in the middle tertile versus 16.8% in the lowest tertile,p=0.001). according to the multiple cox regression analysis,the abi was independently associated with clinical events (the lowest tertile versus the highest tertile of abi,hazard ratio: 6.35,95% confidence interval: 1.37-29.32,p=0.018). in addition,the cumulative event rate according to the abi tertile differed significantly in the kaplan-meier curves (log-rank p=0.009),whereas the receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis showed a sensitivity and specificity for predicting cardiovascular events of 62.5% and 66.2%,respectively,with an abi of 1.057 as the best cut-off value. conclusions: a lower abi is associated with poorer cardiovascular outcomes in patients with des implantation. as a simple and non-invasive parameter,the abi has the benefit of predicting future cardiovascular events in this population. © journal of atherosclerosis and thrombosis. all right received.