Johar Ali, Ali Akbar, Waqas Anwar.
Diabetic foot ulcer grades; correlation with ankle brachial pressure index.
Professional Med J Jan ;15(1):133-6.

Diabetic foot is one of the most common complications of diabetes mellitus. The management and out come is very much dependent on proper assessment of foot ulcer severity. Objectives: To asses severity of diabetic foot and to find a correlation between Ankle Brachial Pressure Index (ABPI) and foot ulcer grades. Study design: Prospective study. Period: Jan 2001 to Dec 2003. Patients & Methods and Setting: Patients with diabetic foot ulcers from all the medical and surgical units of Ayub teaching hospital Abbottabad were enrolled in the study. Results: Ankle Brachial Pressure Index (ABPI) levels revealed 5 (5.8%) with ABPI < 0.5 for grade V, 8 patients (9.3%) ABPI 0.5 – 0.89 for grade IV, 18 patients (20.9%) ABPI 0.9-1 for grade III, 44 (51.2%) ABPI 0.9-1 for grade II, and 9 patients (10.5%) ABPI > 1 for grade I diabetic foot ulcer. This data was analyzed via SPSS version 8.0. Conclusions: Ankle brachial pressure index is a good diagnostic tool to assess the lower extremity arterial disease in diabetic foo t patients. ABPI readings should be cautiously interpreted as these may be falsely elevated in atherosclerotic patients.

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