Publication:

Doppler study of peripheral blood flow in lower extremity of diabetic patients with or without ischemic symptoms in tertiary centre

Background Doppler ultrasonic velocity detector which is least expensive and most versatile instrument. This technique is particularly helpful to establish the diagnosis of vascular insufficiency in clinically suspected cases of vascular disease and to predict the therapeutic results and follow up.

Methods The present study was conducted in MLN Medical College and SRN Hospital, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. Patients of either sex suffering from diabetes with or without ischemic symptoms, who presented themselves. Study consisted of 50 subjects, which were matched by age, sex and all physical characteristics. Among the 50 subjects, 20 were suffering from diabetes and had ischemic symptoms like intermittent or rest pain and gangrene. Another set of 20 patients in this study group were of diabetes without any ischemic symptoms. Remaining 10 patients were controls i.e., they were comparable in physical characteristics like age, sex, height and weight. They had never smoked neither had any vascular disease.

Results In this study, peak incidence of diabetic foot lesion was 6th decade and about 20% of female patient had foot lesion. In this study, the mean duration of disease in diabetic with ischemic symptoms was 9.6 years, while in asymptomatic group it was 6.9 years. It showed that as duration of disease increases, there is more probability for appearance of ischemic symptoms and foot involvement.

Conclusions In diabetics without ischemic symptoms, most of the doppler wave patterns are triphasic and biphasic, while in diabetics with ischemic symptoms biphasic and monophasic waves are predominantly seen.