Frequency of peripheral arterial disease in patients presenting with acute coronary syndrome at a tertiary care centre in Karachi

Objective: To determine the frequency of symptomatic and asymptomatic peripheral arterial disease (PAD) in patients presenting with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) at a tertiary care center in Karachi. Methods: A total of 350 consecutive patients presenting with ACS were recruited in this cross- sectional study. All patients were enrolled from the emergency department of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD), Karachi. Results: PAD, determined by presence of claudicant symptoms on interview and/or an ankle-brachial index (ABI) score less than 0.90, was present in 17.7% of patients, of whom 9.1% had no symptoms of intermittent claudication (IC) and 11.7% had no rest pain. Conclusions: Concomitant PAD is frequent among ACS patients in our study. ABI screening is simple and yields a high proportion of patients with extensive atherosclerosis who may require more aggressive atherosclerosis risk management.