The Ability of Clinical Decision Rules to Detect Peripheral Arterial Disease: A Narrative Review

Int J Low Extrem Wounds. 2022 May 30:15347346221104590. doi: 10.1177/15347346221104590. Online ahead of print.

Abstract

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a common cause of lower extremity wound. Consequently, PAD leads to a cause of leg amputation nowadays, especially in diabetic patients. In general practice (GP), confrontation with PAD prevention is a challenge. In general, ankle-brachial index (ABI) measurement can be used as a PAD diagnostic tool, but this takes some time. The tool is not generally available and this need to train healthcare workers to perform. Multiple independent predictors developed the diagnostic prediction model known as clinical decision rules (CDRs) to identify patients with high-risk PAD. This might therefore limit the number of patients (only high-risk patients) to refer for ABI evaluation. This narrative review summarized existing CDRs for PAD.

Keywords: clinical decision rules; diagnostic prediction model; peripheral arterial disease.