PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Hussein Elghazaly
AU  - Theodore Howard
AU  - Sharan Sanjay
AU  - Omer G Mohamed
AU  - Viknesh Sounderajah
AU  - Zaheer Mehar
AU  - Alun H Davies
AU  - Usman Jaffer
AU  - Pasha Normahani
TI  - Evaluating the prognostic performance of bedside tests used for peripheral arterial disease diagnosis in the prediction of diabetic foot ulcer healing
AID  - 10.1136/bmjdrc-2022-003110
DP  - 2023 Mar 01
TA  - BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care
PG  - e003110
VI  - 11
IP  - 2
4099  - http://drc.bmj.com/content/11/2/e003110.short
4100  - http://drc.bmj.com/content/11/2/e003110.full
SO  - BMJ Open Diab Res Care2023 Mar 01; 11
AB  - Introduction Diabetic foot ulceration (DFU) is a common and challenging complication of diabetes. Risk stratification can guide further management. We aim to evaluate the prognostic performance of bedside tests used for peripheral arterial disease (PAD) diagnosis to predict DFU healing.Research design and methods Testing for Arterial Disease in Diabetes (TrEAD) was a prospective observational study comparing the diagnostic performance of commonly used tests for PAD diagnosis. We performed a secondary analysis assessing whether these could predict DFU healing. Follow-up was performed prospectively for 12 months. The primary outcome was sensitivity for predicting ulcer healing. Secondary endpoints were specificity, predictive values, and likelihood ratios for ulcer healing.Results 123 of TrEAD participants with DFU were included. In 12 months, 52.8% of ulcers healed. The best negative diagnostic likelihood ratio (NDLR) was observed for the podiatry ankle duplex scan (PAD-scan) monophasic or biphasic with adverse features(NDLR 0.35, 95% CI 0.14–0.90). The highest positive likelihood ratios were observed for toe brachial pressure index of ≤0.2 (positive diagnostic likelihood ratio (PDLR) 7.67, 95% CI 0.91–64.84) and transcutaneous pressure of oxygen of ≤20 mm Hg (PDLR 2.68, 95% CI 0.54–13.25). Cox proportional hazards modeling demonstrated significantly greater probabilities of healing with triphasic waveforms (HR=2.54, 95% CI 1.23–5.3, p=0.012) and biphasic waveforms with non-adverse features (HR=13.67, 95% CI 4.78–39.1, p<0.001) on PAD-scan.Conclusions No single test performed well enough to be used in isolation as a prognostic marker for the prediction of DFU healing.Trial registration number NCT04058626.No data are available.