Abstract
To examine the possible usefulness of the analysis of femoral artery flow patterns for the assessment of atherosclerosis in patients on regular dialysis treatment, we analyzed femoral artery flow patterns by the pulsed Doppler method.
The subjects consisted of 18 dialysis patients and 18 control subjects. The interval between the top of R wave on ECG and the onset of the femoral artery flow pattern (R-FA), peak systolic forward flow velocity (peak FA), peak reversed flow velocity (rev FA), peak FA/rev FA (R), and the interval between the top of wave on ECG and peak FA (R-PV) were recorded. These parameters were compared between dialysis patients and control subjects, and the correlation of these parameters with aortic pulse wave velocity (C-PWV), an established index of aortic atherosclerosis, was assessed among dialysis patients.
R-FA and R-PV were significantly shorter in dialysis patints than in control subjects. Peak FA and R were also significantly smaller in dialysis patients. C-PWV was significantly larger in dialysis patients. R-FA and R-PV were negatively correlated with C-PWV in dialysis patients, although there were no correlations to C-PWV in other parameters, which are assessed to reflect peripheral atherosclerosis.
We conclude that the analysis of femoral artery flow patterns might be useful to estimate aortic and peripheral atherosclerosis in dialysis patients.
