Comparative study between Doppler ultrasonography and clinical palpation of pulse in diagnosing peripheral vascular disease in diabetes foot patients.

Mukund Pandey; Sureshkumar K; Piyush Kumar Shrivastava

Volume : IX, Issue : I, January - 2020

Comparative study between Doppler ultrasonography and clinical palpation of pulse in diagnosing peripheral vascular disease in diabetes foot patients.

Mukund Pandey, Sureshkumar K, Piyush Kumar Shrivastava

Abstract :

Aims: To study the effectiveness of Doppler ultrasonography in diagnosing peripheral vascular disease in diabetic foot patients when compared to clinical palpation of pulse. Materials and method: The study was carried out in 115 diabetic patients. Peripheral pulses like posterior tibial and dorsalis paedis artery were checked. The presence of vasculopathy was checked with Doppler scanning of Dorsalis pedis artery and Posterior tibial artery. Qualitative waveform analysis was performed by visual interpretation of continuously displayed waveforms. Thus we observe the presence of degree of stenosis in the lower limb arteries with the help of pulse waveform ultrasonography and results were calculated by statistical method. Results: In the present study, it was found that in affected right lower limb patients of diabetic foot, by clinical method of palpating the peripheral pulses no pulse was felt (positive finding) in 15 patients and weakly palpable or strongly palpable pulse (negative finding) were felt in 51 patients. Also by doing Doppler study for the same group of patients, stenosis was found (positive finding) in 59 patients and no stenosis (negative finding) was found in 7 patients. By using chi square test the p value found to be <0.00001 which was statistically significant. In affected left lower limb patients of diabetic foot, by clinical method of palpating the peripheral pulses no pulse was felt (positive finding) in 9 patients and weakly palpable or strongly palpable pulse (negative finding) were felt in 40 patients. Also by doing Doppler study for the same group of patients, stenosis was found (positive finding) in 41 patients and no stenosis (negative finding) was found in 8 patients. By using chi square test the p value found to be <0.00001 which was statistically significant. Conclusion: Doppler ultrasonography of lower extremities had a greater accuracy in diagnosing peripheral vascular disease of diabetic foot patients when compared to clinical palpation of pulses.