PERIPHERAL ARTERIAL-DISEASE IN THE ELDERLY - THE ROTTERDAM STUDY

To assess the age-and sex-specific prevalence oi peripheral arterial d isease (PAD) and intermittent claudication (IC) in an elderly populati on, we performed a population-based study in 7715 subjects (40% men, 6 0% women) aged 55 years and over. The presence of PAD and IC was deter mined by measuring the ankle-arm systolic blood pressure index (AAI) a nd by means of the World Health Organization/Rose questionnaire, respe ctively. PAD was considered present when the AAI was <0.90 in either l eg. The prevalence of PAD was 19.1% (95% confidence interval, 18.1% to 20.0%): 16.9% in men and 20.5% in women. Symptoms of IC were reported by 1.6% (95% confidence interval, 1.3% to 1.9%) of the study populati on (2.2% in men, 1.2% in women), Of those with PAD, 6.3% reported symp toms of IC (8.7% in men, 4.9% in women), whereas in 68.9% of those wit h IC an AAI below 0.90 was found, Subjects with an AAI <0.90 were more likely to be smokers, to have hypertension, and to have symptomatic o r asymptomatic cardiovascular disease compared with subjects with an A AI of 0.90 or higher. The authors conclude that the prevalence of PAD in the elderly is high whereas the prevalence of IC is rather low, alt hough both prevalences clearly increase with advancing age. The vast m ajority of PAD patients reports no symptoms of IC.