Objective:

To characterize the peripheral arterial disease in patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 and to identify its relation with socio-demographic and clinical variables.

Methods:

A descriptive study in 252 patients with diabetes mellitus type 2. To all of them it was measured the ankle-brachial pressure index to characterize the disease and it was applied the Edinburgh questionnaire. The variables were: ankle-brachial pressure index, age, sex, years of evolution of diabetes, cardiovascular risk factors, and intermittent claudication.

Results:

The frequency of the ankle- upper arm pressures index was 37.2% (n=99). The associated factors were sex, age, hypertension and the years of evolution of diabetes. The Edinburgh questionnaire had a sensitivity of 44.4 % and a specificity of 71.9 % to detect symptomatic peripheral arterial disease.

Conclusions:

Peripheral arterial disease is underdiagnosed in spite of the high frequency of the of ankle- upper arm pressure index in patients with diabetes mellitus type 2; in Honduras, there is scarce information since there are not routinely implemented the diagnostic methods in patients with risk factors for developing the disease, until it is very advanced. There is a direct relation of this disease with the age, the female sex, time of evolution of diabetes mellitus and hypertension. The systematic screening through the ankle-brachial index identifies more high-risk individuals which are candidates for intensive control of cardiovascular risk factors and it facilitates the active search of vascular disease in other territories.

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