Scoring of vascular disease in the lower extremities

Abstract

Lack of standardisation in reporting the vascular status of patients leads to difficulties in comparing different series. A method of vascular scoring is presented, integrating symptoms, physical examination, vascular laboratory studies and arteriography. The score is expressed in a concise form by several letters and numbers supplying the relevant information as to the main segment involved, the severity of the ischaemia and the completeness of the examination. The files of 100 candidates for vascular surgery were recorded with the scoring method. Vascular indices were calculated by dividing the sum of points assigned to each item by the maximal available score. The internal consistency of the method was evaluated by computing separate indices for the three components of the scoring--clinical examination (CE), vascular laboratory (VL) and arteriography (AR)--and comparing them with the overall index and with each other. Correlation coefficients with the overall index were for CE 0.90, for VL 0.92 and for AR 0.75. The data on the 200 limbs were reviewed independently by three experienced vascular surgeons and ranked in order of increasing severity of ischaemia; the correlation coefficient between this ranking and one based solely on the scoring method was 0.91. A vascular scoring method may help create a mutual language among practitioners, enabling them to compare results and benefit from accumulating worldwide experience.