Pulse volume recording for peripheral vascular disease diagnosis in diabetes patients

Erik Benitez, Bauer E Sumpio

Department of Surgery (Vascular), Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

Abstract: Peripheral arterial disease is common in patients with diabetes mellitus. It has become routine to screen for peripheral arterial disease in diabetic patients. As clinicians' knowledge and understanding of the disease processes increase, the diagnosis and surveillance also rises. As an adjunct to clinical examination, pulse volume recordings are useful in assessing perfusion of patients with poorly compressible arteries. The development of this study during the early 70s helped create the concept of noninvasive vascular imaging and testing. The analysis of pressure–pulse waveforms localized the presence of high-grade lesions and delineated the extent of the disease process. Pulse volume recordings are currently extensively used with other modalities such as arterial duplex and angiography and help to establish an arterial etiology of a patient's disease process, as well as localizing the lesion, determining the prognosis, and performing surveillance after interventions.

Keywords: pulse volume recordings, ankle brachial index, peripheral arterial disease, diabetes mellitus, critical limb ischemia, pulse wave contour, pressure–pulse waveforms