| Summary: | Purpose/Background/Objective: Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a common manifestation of atherosclerosis and obesity is one of its well-established risk factors 1–5. PAD is classified in intermittent claudication (IC) and critical limb ischemia (CLI), according to the its severity6. Therefore, we hypothesized that anthropometric measures of adiposity will be associated with the severity of PAD.
Methods: We studied prospectively 46 males who underwent aorto-bifemoral bypass from 2013 to 2016: The body mass index (BMI), the waist circumference, the waist-to-hip ratio and the ankle-brachial index (ABI) were determined.
Results: 17 IC: 60.69 ± 7.46 years old; 17.6% with diabetes; 70% with hypertension and 100% were smoker/ex-smoker. 29 CLI: 64.51 ± 8.42 years old; 44.82% with diabetes; 51.72% with hypertension and 86.2% were smoker/ex-smoker. All the anthropometric measures were higher in the IC group (BMI:25.10 ± 5.01 Kg/m2 versus 23.52 ± 3.59 Kg/m2, p = 0.27; weight: 72.74 ± 9.84 Kg versus 65.92 ± 10.89 Kg p = 0.043; waist circumference: 98.65 ± 8.19 cm versus 89.38 ± 15.91 cm p = 0.017; waist-to-hip ratio: 1.06 ± 0.06 versus 1.01 ± 0.06 p = 0.038). No relationship was found between ABI and the anthropometric measures.
Conclusion: This is the first study of anthropometric measures in IC and CLI patients undergoing aorto-bifemoral bypass. Adipose tissue was not directly determined in this study, but the measurements used have been shown to correlate well with adiposity. We found an inverse relationship between body fat content and the severity of PAD. Patients with CLI had a lower weight, waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio, and these differences were statistically significant. Obesity is a risk factor for atherosclerosis, but as PAD progresses to CLI, there is an increase in tissue hypoxia, which causes an inflammatory environment promoting proteolysis and lipolysis.
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