Abstract

ALDAMA FIGUEROA, Alfredo; ALVAREZ DUARTE, Héctor; RODRIGUEZ, Alicia  and  REYES, Bárbara. Qualitative evaluation of the morphology of the photopletismographic signal in the diagnosis of arterial insufficiency. Rev Cubana Invest Bioméd [online]. 2008, vol.27, n.1. ISSN 0864-0300.

Aimed at evaluating the possibilities of a simple qualitative analysis of the photopletismographic curve AC for diagnosing the arterial insufficiency of the lower limbs, the registers obtained in the extremities of 289 diabetic patients and 571 non diabetic were compared with the values of the ankle/arm index obtained by Doppler method. The photopletismographic signals were classified according to the following characteristics: presence of signal, asymmetry of it, characteristics of the decrease phase and presence of dicrotism. The ankle/arm index was used as a gold standard and those values higher than or equal to 0.9 were considered normal. Values of exactness, sensitivity and specificity of 90.8 %, 92 % y 90 %, respectively, were found for the non diabetic patients. On the other hand, the diabetic patients showed values of exactness, sensitivity and specificity of 90 %, 85 % and 93 %, respectively. It was concluded that the analysis proposed may be useful in the diagnosis of arterial insufficiency.

Keywords : Photopletismography; Doppler; arterial insufficiency; diabetes mellitus; diagnosis.

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