BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate the early femoral sclerosis in hypertensive patients by using tissue Doppler imaging (TDI).

MATERIAL AND METHODS: One hundred patients with hypertension were recruited and divided into group A (femoral artery intima-media thicknesses (IMT) ≥1.0 mm) and group B (femoral artery IMT <1.0 mm) with 50 cases in each group based on the femoral IMT. In addition, 50 healthy controls were also included in this study. Femoral wall structure and femoral artery IMT were examined by using high frequency ultrasound. Pulsed wave (PW)-TDI was used to obtain the motion curve of the posterior wall of the femoral artery. First (T1) and second (T2) peak duration were also obtained.

RESULTS: The IMT of group A, group B, and the healthy control group were 1.17±0.12 mm, 0.74±0.11 mm, and 0.71±0.09 mm respectively with significant statistical difference (P<0.05). The first peak duration (T1) of the 3 groups (group A, group B, and healthy control group) were 135.6±16.6 ms, 134.5±18.5 ms, and 129.8±12.4 ms, respectively without statistical difference (F=1.868 P=0.158). The second peak duration (T2) of group A, group B, and the healthy control group were 234.7±39.8 ms, 209.3±34.9 ms, and 169.8±19.5 ms respectively with statistically significant difference (F=50.411 P=0.000). The diagnostic sensitivity, specificity area under the curve (AUC) and cutoff value for early arteriosclerosis diagnosis of femoral artery by T1 was 56.0% (95% CI: 41.3–70.0%), 66.0% (95% CI: 51.2–78.8%), AUC=0.54 (95% CI: 0.42–0.66) and 130.5 ms respectively. And it was 64.0% (95% CI: 49.2–77.1%), 62.0% (95% CI: 47.2–75.4%), AUC=0.69 (95% CI: 0.59–0.80) and 214.5 ms respectively for T2.

CONCLUSIONS: TDI can be used as an effective index for early femoral artery sclerosis before femoral artery IMT changes.

Keywords: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Echocardiography, Doppler, Femoral Artery, Hypertension, Arteriosclerosis, Tunica Intima, Ultrasonography, Ultrasonography, Doppler