The Prevalence of Lower Extremity Peripheral Artery Disease among Adults with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Attending a Teaching Hospital in Ghana

Background Peripheral artery disease (PAD) indicates generalized atherosclerosis and thus carries a very high risk for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality and is usually extensive and severe when associated with diabetes. Ankle Brachial Index (ABI) is a single, non-invasive and reliable bedside method for diagnosing the presence and severity of PAD. Objectives of the study was to estimate the prevalence of PAD in the lower limbs among adult type 2 diabetic clients and to assess any associations between PAD and selected clinical factors like sex, age, hypertension and duration of diabetes. Methods A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted between January, 2015 through April, 2015 among patients with diabetes attending the diabetes clinic at Cape Coast teaching hospital, Ghana. A pre-coded questionnaire was used to collect data by face to face interview, and ABI measurement was done for each client. An ABI of less than0.9 was considered diagnostic of PAD. Results A total of 200 adult clients with diabetes with a female predominance (71.5 % females, 28.5 % males) participated in the study. Majority were within the 50-59 and 60-69 age groups. Majority (34.5 %) of the clients reported duration of their diabetes diagnosis between 5-10 years. The prevalence of PAD among the study clients on the right and left lower limbs were 17.5 % and 18.0 % respectively with preponderance in female clients. Of these, 22/35 (62.9 %) had mild PAD on the right leg and 24/36 (66.7 %) on the left leg whiles 13/35 (37.1 %) had moderate PAD on the right leg and 12/36 (33.3 %) on the left leg respectively with no severe disease noted. PAD was associated with duration of diabetes (pless than0.05). Majority (88.5 %) of the clients had hypertension co-morbidity. Conclusions PAD is common among adult type 2 clients with diabetes in Ghana and early screening and treatment by medical professionals needs to be emphasized to help lower subsequent morbidity and mortality and systemic atherosclerotic diseases.