Background: Thickening of ar terial wal l is an early indicator of atherosclerosis which is mostly a poly vascular
disease. Thickened carotid intima media thickness is now wel l accepted as a sur rogate marker for cardiovascular ,
cerebrovascular , and peripheral vascular a ffection. Some data exists regarding the relationship between intima media
thickness of the common femoral artery as a predictor of di fferent vascular beds atherosclerosis.
.Aim: To evaluate the abi l i ty of common femoral artery intima media thickness to pr edict subcl inical peripheral
ar terial disease in elderly patients wi th type 2 diabetes mel l i tus.
Methods: 60 elderly subjects wi th type 2 diabetes were examined for the presence of asymptomatic PAD. Al l were
assessed by measuring Common Femoral Artery Intima Media Thickness CFA IMT, ankle brachial index (ABI) .
Results: The patients with reduced ABI (N=9) had greater CFA-IMT than those without (N=51). The correlation
between CFA-IMT and ABI was highly significant. CFA IMT≥ 8.5 mm had an area under the curve of 0.962 (95% CI;
0.917- 1.007, p = 0.000*) for predicting subclinical PAD in patients with type 2 diabetes.
Conclusions: This data suggests that thickened CFA IMT is a signi ficant predictor of asymptomatic PAD in patien ts
wi th type 2 diabetes