Simple routine assessment of dietary pattern in patients with peripheral artery disease

An unfavorable dietary pattern is associated with symptomatic peripheral artery disease

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Diet has an essential role in primary and secondary cardiovascular prevention by modulating various cardiovascular risk factors. The need to have easily useable tools seems essential to facilitate the daily practice of clinicians in order to propose the most optimal management of their patients' diet. The aim of this study was to compare the diet assessed with a simple food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) between patients with symptomatic peripheral artery disease (PAD) and healthy subjects.

MATERIALS AND RESULTS

In this ancillary study (ELECTRO-PAD study), we included symptomatic PAD patients and healthy participants. All participants filled a FFQ previously validated called Cardiovascular-Dietary-Questionnaire 2 (CDQ-2). CDQ-2 allows the calculation of different scores: global food score, saturated fatty acids score (SFA), unsaturated fatty acids score (UFA), fruit and vegetable score. The higher the score, the better the diet. We compared the different scores between PAD patients and healthy participants. We included 37 PAD patients and 40 healthy subjects. Mean global score was significantly lower in PAD patients compared to the healthy participants (5.35 ± 7.65 vs 10.60 ± 5.81; p = 0.0011). Similarly, the sub-scores concerning unsaturated fatty acids and fruits-vegetables were significantly lower in PAD patients (p < 0.010). Only the sub-score concerning saturated fatty acids was not significantly different (p = 0.8803) between PAD patients and healthy participants.

CONCLUSION

CDQ-2 highlights that PAD patients have an unfavorable diet compared with healthy participants. CDQ-2 is a tool of interest to help the clinicians for dietary advice of PAD patients.

Evaluation of short food-frequency questionnaires to assess the dietary pattern associated with atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases

OBJECTIVES

Cardiovascular diseases are strongly related to dietary habits. Diet can be assessed using dedicated questionnaires that can be self-completed by subjects but with the risk of errors.

AIM

To compare the completion error rate of two questionnaires designed to assess dietary pattern linked to cardiovascular diseases and to study the correlation between the two questionnaires.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Two questionnaires were used to assess dietary patterns of students: the 14-item Food-Frequency-Questionnaire (FFQ) that was validated against biomarkers, and the Cardiovascular-Dietary-Questionnaire 2 (CDQ2), which is a 19-item-FFQ derived from the previous 14-item FFQ. Both questionnaires assessed the intake of various food groups associated with either favourable or unfavourable effects on cardiovascular risk. A global dietary score was calculated for each questionnaire.

RESULTS

FFQ and CDQ2 were completed by 150 sport degree students. In the case of FFQ, 111 questionnaires out of 150 (74.0%) were incomplete compared to only 1 CDQ2 out of 150 (0.7%) (P<0.001). The correlation coefficient between the overall CDQ2 score and the FFQ dietary score was 0.53 (P<0.01).

CONCLUSION

The self-completion of CDQ2 compared to FFQ was associated with far less errors. There was a significant correlation between CDQ2 and FFQ. Preference should be given to CDQ2 in clinical practice and in studies where dietary pattern are evaluated without any interviewer.

Internal Iliac Artery Stenosis: Diagnosis and How to Manage it in 2015

Lower extremity arterial disease (LEAD) is a highly prevalent disease affecting 202 million people worldwide. Internal iliac artery stenosis (IIAS) is one of the localization of LEAD. This diagnosis is often neglected when a patient has a proximal walking pain since most physicians evoke a pseudoclaudication. Surprisingly, IIAS management is reported neither in the Trans-Atlantic Inter-Society Consensus II nor in the report of the American College Foundation/American Heart Association guidelines. The aims of this review are to present the current knowledge about the disease, how should it be managed in 2015 and what are the future research trends.

[Good reproducibility of a 14-item food frequency questionnaire for cardiovascular prevention in students]

Diet is a modifiable risk factor of atherosclerosis. A 14-item food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) has been developed. The reproducibility of this FFQ is unknown in a student population whereas its use could be of interest.

METHODS

This FFQ allows calculating different scores for different food groups involved in cardiovascular disease. The vascular dietary score (VDS) can be calculated. The VSD ranges from -17 to +19. The higher the VSD, the better diet. Reproducibility was assessed in sports faculty students using mean tests comparing measurement 1 and 2 (minimum time interval ≥ 7 days) and intra-class correlation (ICC) tests.

RESULTS

Thirty students (50% men) were included in a French Sports Faculty. Time between two FFQ assessments was 19 ± 9 days. Mean VSD was 0.50 ± 3.70 for the first assessment and 0.30 ± 3.14 for the second one (non significant). Any score for each food group was statistically significant between the first and the second measurement. ICC of VSD was 0.68 [95% confidence interval: 0.43-0.83].

CONCLUSION

This FFQ that assesses a risky vascular diet has good reproducibility. This tool could be useful for large studies involving students.