Femoral artery plaque: A simple ultrasound clue for severe coronary stenosis

Table 1 General characteristics of patients of the total cohort (n = 218) and groups with and without coronary atherosclerosis, n (%)

Parameters	Baseline characteristics			P value
	Total cohort (n = 218)	Patients with Gensini score 0 (n = 76)	Patients with Gensini score > 0 (n = 142)
Sex (men%)	53	43	60.5	0.036
Age	62.6 (10.9)	60.5 (11.9)	63.5 (10.1)	-
BMI, kg/m2	29.9 (5.8)	29.4 (5.6)	30.1 (5.1)	-
Smoking (0/1/2)1%	45/13/42	50/14/36	42/9/46	-
DMT2%	21.3	14.2	25.6	0.05
Waist circumference, cm	93.0 (11.5)	92.1 (12.2)	93.7 (12.3)	-
Systolic blood pressure, mm Hg	129.5 (12.7)	126.53 (11.5)	131.1 (14.3)	0.02
Diastolic blood pressure, mm Hg	71.8 (7.8)	71.8 (7.6)	73.5 (8.6)	-
Biochemical markers
Total cholesterol, mmol/L	4.32 (1.10)	4.49 (1.13)	4.24 (1.08)	-
Triglycerides, mmol/L	1.50 (0.76)	1.54 (0.85)	1.47 (0.72)	-
LDL cholesterol, mmol/L	2.50 (0.90)	2.62 (0.97)	2.43 (0.91)	-
HDL cholesterol, mmol/L	1.15 (0.31)	1.18 (0.32)	1.12 (0.30)	-
Glucose, mmol/L	6.32 (1.68)	5.85 (1.35)	6.60 (1.78)	0.0001
Statin treatment at enrollment%	58.2	32.3	72.3	0.0001

¹Smoking status: 0: Never smoked; 1: Smoking in the past; 2: Present smoker.

The groups were compared using the Mann-Whitney test. DM: Diabetes mellitus type 2; BMI: Body mass index; LDL: Low-density lipoprotein; HDL: High-density lipoprotein.

Table 2 Associations between atherosclerotic lesions of the femoral arteries determined by ultrasound imaging with atherosclerotic lesions over 50% in at least one major coronary vessel in ischemic heart disease patients

ROC	AUC/OR	P value	95%CI		Sensitivity	Specificity
			Lower	Upper
Atherosclerosis of femoral arteries, threshold at 30%	0.91	0.0001	0.86	0.95	0.83	0.84
Threshold of femoral lesions at 30%; n = 131/12 and 19/52	29.87	0.0001	13.54	65.89	-	-

CI: Confidence interval; AUC: Area under the curve; OR: Odds ratio; ROC: Receiver operating characteristic.

Table 3 Associations of atherosclerotic lesions higher than 70% of the femoral arteries (binary variable) with Gensini score (continuous variable) in ischemic heart disease patients as shown in Figure 1

ROC	AUC/OR	P value	95%CI		Sensitivity	Specificity
			Lower	Upper
Threshold for Gensini score cut off 41	0.93	0.0001	0.89	0.97	0.93	0.90
Threshold for Gensini score cut off 41; n = 141/13 and 8/52	70.5	0.0001	27.63	179.82	-	-

CI: Confidence interval; AUC: Area under the curve; OR: Odds ratio; ROC: Receiver operating characteristic.

Table 4 Parameters estimators for the statistic model where Gensini > 41 as a dependent variable and femoral atherosclerosis ≥ 70% as an independent variable were adjusted for other risk factors using binomial regression analysis

Independent variables	B	SE	Hypothesis test			95% Wald CI
			Wald χ2	df	Sig.	Lower	Upper
Sex	1.19	0.05	5.72	1	0.017	1.24	8.79
Age	-0.06	0.02	80.51	1	0.004	0.90	0.97
Smoking status1	-0.13	0.24	0.31	1	0.57	0.53	10.41
DM type 2	-0.13	0.46	0.08	1	0.77	0.34	20.18
Body mass index	0.01	0.05	0.10	1	0.75	0.91	10.13
Waist circumference	-0.01	0.02	0.47	1	0.49	0.94	10.02
Systolic blood pressure	-0.01	0.01	10.13	1	0.28	0.94	10.01
Diastolic blood pressure	0.01	0.02	0.13	1	0.71	0.95	10.07
Statin treatment at enrollment	-1.42	0.41	11.76	1	0.001	0.11	0.54
Femoral atherosclerosis ≥ 70%	-1.42	0.53	4.99	1	0.025	0.11	0.86

¹Smoking status: 0: Never smoked; 1: Smoking in the past; 2: Present smoker.

df: Degrees of freedom; Sig: Significance; CI: Confidence interval.

Table 5 Assessment of all tested combinations of threshold conditions for associations between femoral atherosclerotic lesions and coronary stenosis

Extent of stenosis in femoral arteries (%)	OR for coronary stenosis	Extent of stenosis at least one coronary vessel (%)	Prognostic accuracy (%)
30	30	≥ 50	91
70	70	≥ 70	93

OR: Odds ratio.