Prevalentie van perifere arteriele vaatziekte en claudicatio intermittens bij personen van 55 jaar en ouder: Het ERGO-onderzoek

Objective. To assess the age and sex specific prevalence of peripheral arterial disease and intermittent claudication in persons aged 55 years and older. Design. Cross-sectional study. Method. Data on the prevalence of peripheral arterial disease and intermittent claudication were collected in 1990/'93 among 7983 men and women aged 55 years and over, living in Ommoord, a suburb of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, as a part of the Rotterdam Study (response 78%). Each participant was interviewed at home and visited the research centre twice for clinical examinations. The prevalence of peripheral arterial disease was assessed by non-invasive measurement of the ankle-arm index: it was considered present if the ankle-arm index was below 0.90 in at least one leg. The prevalence of intermittent claudication was established by using the Rose questionnaire on intermittent claudication. Results. The ankle-arm index was determined in 6450 participants. The prevalence of peripheral arterial disease was 19.1% (95% confidence interval (95% CI): 18.1-20.0); 16.9% (95% CI: 15.4-18.3) among men and 20.5% (95% CI: 19.2- 21.8) among women. The prevalence of intermittent claudication was established in 7715 participants. The prevalence of intermittent claudication was 1.6% (95% CI: 1.3-1.9); 2.2% (95% CI: 1.7-2.8) in men and 1.2% (95% CI: 0.9-1.5) in women. Both prevalences increased with advancing age groups. Of subjects with peripheral arterial disease 6.3% had symptoms of intermittent claudication (8.7% in men, and 4.9% in women). Of the patients with intermittent claudication 31.3% had no diminished ankle-arm index. Conclusion. The prevalence of peripheral arterial disease in the elderly was high, while the prevalence of intermittent claudication was rather low. The majority of patients with peripheral arterial disease had no symptoms of intermittent claudication.