Endotheliale Dysfunktion und kardiovaskuläre Ereignisse bei Patienten mit peripherer arterieller Verschlusskrankheit

Background: Patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) are characterized by a high mortality for cardiovascular events. An impairment of endothelial function, expressed as brachial-artery flow-mediated vasodilation (FMV), has been described in PAD patients. Aim of this study was to investigate the association between FMV and cardiovascular events in patients with PAD. Patients and methods: Thirty-eight patients with intermittent claudication (71% men, mean age 71 years) were divided into two groups according to the presence or absence of previous major cardiovascular events (myocardial infarction or stroke). Results: Brachial FMV was significantly lower in patients with a history of myocardial infarction or stroke (n = 16) than in patients without cardiovascular events (3.2 ± 3.6% vs. 5.7 ± 3.6%; p = 0.042). In the group with cardiovascular events there was a significantly higher proportion of subjects in the lower FMV tertile (56% vs. 18%), and a lower proportion of subjects in the upper tertile (25...