Introduction: Ankle brachial index (ABI) is not widespread in clinical practice because the need for specific equipment and training. Doing it without these requirements, quicker and with a cheaper method would facilitate their routine use.
Aims: To evaluate sensitivity and specificity of an automatic blood pressure device detecting ABI < 0.90, when technique is performed by nurses. To evaluate agreement between two techniques for the ABI determination. PATIENTS AND METHODS. Diagnostic accuracy study in 30 ischemic stroke patients. For each patient, three measurements were performed with the automatic device, and one with the reference method.
Results: The automatic blood pressure device performance detecting ABI < 0.90 was acceptable for each of the three measurements (sensitivity: 78%, 87% and 100%; specificity: 95%, 100% and 100%; positive predictive value: 87%, 100% and 100%; negative predictive value: 91%, 96% y 100%; accuracy: 90%, 97% y 100%). The intraclass correlation coefficients for intra-observer, inter-observer and inter-method variability showed acceptable levels, with results of 0.64, 0.83 and 0.75, respectively. In the Bland Altman test only inter-method comparison had less than 5% of its values out of range.
Conclusions: Sensitivity and specificity of an automatic blood pressure device detecting ABI < 0.90 shows acceptable levels when technique is performed by nurses. This suggests its potential as screening tool in transient ischemic attack/ischemic stroke patients.