CHADS2, CHA2DS2ASc, and New ABCD Scores Predict the Risk of Peripheral Arterial Disease in Patients with Sleep Apnea

The association between sleep apnea (SA) and peripheral artery disease (PAD) remains debatable, and there is no clinical tool to predict incident PAD in SA patients. The CHADS2 score has been found useful in predicting PAD risk. This study was designed to investigate the association between these diseases and the usefulness of CHADS2 and CHA2DS2ASc scores in predicting subsequent PAD in SA patients. From a population-based database of one-million representative subjects, adult patients with SA diagnosis were enrolled as the suspected SA group, and those having SA diagnosis after polysomnography were further extracted as the probable SA group. Twenty sex- and age-matched control subjects were randomly selected for each SA patients. The occurrence of PAD after SA was taken as the primary endpoint. Totally, 10,702 and 4242 patients were enrolled in the suspected and probable SA groups, respectively. The cumulative incidence of PAD was similar between SA patients and the corresponding control groups. Multivariable Cox regression analyses showed that SA was not an independent risk factor for subsequent PAD. Sensitivity analyses using propensity score-matched cohorts showed consistent results. Furthermore, in stratifying the SA patients by CHADS2, CHA2DS2ASc, or a newly-proposed ABCD (composed of Age, high Blood pressure, Cerebral vascular disease, and Diabetes mellitus) score, patients with higher scores predicted higher risks of subsequent PAD, while the ABCD score appeared to be the most robust. Aggressive risk modification is suggested to reduce the subsequent PAD risk in SA patients with a higher CHADS2, CHA2DS2ASc, or ABCD score.

Prediction of stroke risk in patients with transient ischemic attack: ABCD score and its derived scores

Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA) is a high-risk signal of acute ischemic cerebrovascular disease, indicates a significant increase in the risk of ischemic stroke, especially within 7 days. Risk assessment and stratification are important in patient with TIA. A variety of simple prediction scales were developed based on the risk factors for stroke in patients with TIA, such as the California scale, ABCD scale, and ABCD2 scale. Among them, the ABCD scale score is used most commonly, but as its application becomes more and more common, the defects of this scale are also increasingly apparent. In recent years, some derived scales of ABCD score were introduced in order to improve the sensitivity and specificity of prediction. This article reviews the evolution, contents, characteristics, and predictive value of the ABCD score and its derived scales in the prediction of the stroke risk in patients with TIA.