Assessment of Lower Extremity Vessels Disease using Computed Tomography Angiography (CTA)

Lower limb peripheral arterial disease is the atheromatous narrowing or occlusion of an artery or arteries of the leg. If symptoms occur these may include intermittent claudication, ischaemic rest pain, ulceration, and gangrene. Risk factors include advanced age, smoking, hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, diabetes, obesity, and family history. Management strategies differ for patients with intermittent claudication and patients with limb threatening ischaemia, in whom angioplasty, surgical revascularisation, or amputation are usually required. The objective of the study is to assess lower extremity vessels diseases using commuted tomography angiography and to correlate computed tomography angiography diagnosis with patients, age, history and patient’s gender, and to identify which the diseases most common in the lower extremities’ vessels. This is descriptive, cross section study carried out during the period from January to May 2016. The study was classified and analyzed by statistical package for social science. The results showed that incidence of lower extremity vessels diseases was high among the age group 70-74 years which represented 23 cases (25.27%). The study also showed 60 cases (65.93%) were male and 31 cases (34.07%) were female out of 91 cases scanned by computed tomography angiography. The study showed that most of cases were moderate weight 78 cases (85.71%) and the employers were most affected by lower extremity vessels disease represented in 52 cases (57.14%). The most computed tomography angiography diagnoses of cases were atherosclerosis represented in 71 cases (78.02%). The study also showed that location of disease mostly bilateral represented in 52 cases (61.90%) and most of patients had history of diabetic and they were 60 cases (65.93%). The study showed that the computed tomography angiography diagnosis and patients’ history had statistically significant association with presence of lower extremity vessels diseases. The study recommended that Computed tomography including computed tomography angiography protocol should be provided in governmental hospitals.