Detecting Early Peripheral Artery Disease in Diabetic Limbs with Ultrasound Techniques

This book was conducted in three experimental investigations and the

first investigation aimed to firstly determine the repeatability of

ultrasound parameters which include peak systolic velocity, pulsatility index,

resistive index and vessel diameter inner to inner in measuring blood flow in 10

asymptomatic diabetic patients with early-stage PAD to establish their

robustness before their utilisation in a larger sample size of participants in the

second investigation. In the second investigation, the aim was to determine

if the robust ultrasound parameters from the first investigation would able

to detect the effects of early-stage PAD in the lower limb blood flow of

35 asymptomatic diabetic patients compared to 36 non-diabetic controls.

In the third investigation, the aim was to determine if the robust ultrasound

parameters from the second investigation alongside systolic blood pressure

(SBP) and diastolic blood (DBP) would be able to show the acute effects of

ingested beetroot juice by the same sample of participants from the second

investigation.

In this chapter, the first outline is an overview of the main pathological

process being researched in this book which is Type 2 diabetes and its

complication of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) in the lower limb arteries,

followed by the overview of the current methods of imaging PAD and

therapy then finally the rationale which prompted the undertaking of this

book.