Huntleigh Dopplex® ABIlity Automatic ABI System

Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of global death and disability, and was responsible for the loss of 17.9 million in 2019 alone. Early identification of CVD risk factors and disease is vital in securing future advances against the disease.

PAD (Peripheral Arterial Disease) can be easily identified via ABI (Ankle Brachial Index), which has resulted in an increased for PAD screening to help identify those who are at an increased risk of CVD. The ABI also has a pivotal role in lower limb wound management and International wound guidelines stipulate that an ABI should be undertaken prior to instigation of compression therapy.

Meet the Dopplex® ABIlity Automatic ABI System

The Dopplex ABIlity has revolutionised the ABI process and provides automatic, easy, fast and accurate measurements with an immediate printout of results from the integral printer or optional DR4 software package.

Requires minimal training and provides rapid bilateral ABI measurements in just 3 minutes. It’s portability enables measurements to be made more efficiently in the primary care clinic, hospital or patient’s home. This can lead to the prioritisation of clinical services by improving clinical pathways.

Dopplex ABIlity also records the ankle pulse volume waveforms which provides pictorial evidence to aid a clinician’s diagnosis; this is of particular value in patients who are prone to arterial calcification, such as diabetics.

How it works:

Huntleigh’s patented two chamber cuffs use duo sense™ pneumatic technology to measure systolic pressures and is based on volume plethysmography and not oscillometric techniques. One chamber is used to occlude the vessel, while the second distal chamber is used to sense the returning signals allowing four limbs to be measured simultaneously.

Ability Technology vs Oscillometric

The Ability is based on volume plethysmography technology which is superior to other automatic systems using the oscillometric method, especially in detecting low ankle pressures. When low ankle  pressures are present, pulses are faint or undetectable and the oscillometric technique fails to detect systolic pressures correctly.

However, the Ability does not depend upon detectable pulses being present and can therefore measure ankle pressures as low as 55mmHg and ABIs as low as 0.29 (Lewis, 2016).

Systematic reviews (Caruana, 2005 and Verberk, 2012) have shown that automatic ABI systems based on oscillometric technology have poor correlation and sensitivity when compared to Doppler ABIs. It is
questionable whether they are suited for applications in wound care and PAD screening.

Simultaneous Arm Pressures

The Dopplex Ability is also superior to other ABI automated systems as it measures the blood pressures in both arms before utilising the higher pressure to calculate the ABI. This complies with current  guidelines for ABI measurement and calculation published by NICE, ESC, TASC2 and AHA. Automated systems which measure the pressure in one arm only, may miss or incorrectly classify cases of PAD.  (Vowden and Vowden, 2018).

Contoured Cuffs

The Dopplex Ability system has specially designed contoured ankle cuffs to give improved accuracy of ABIs. These unique cuffs correctly fit the shape of the ankle providing correct compression of the arteries
resulting in superior measurements and enhanced patient comfort. Large adult cuffs are also available to fit large or oedematous limbs.

Duo-senseTM cuff – designed for the ankle

• Rapid Measurements in 3 Minutes
• No Need to rest the Patient
• Can be used by Healthcare Support Staff
• Reduces Inappropriate Referrals
• Immediate Printouts
• Printouts and Archiving of Results with DR4 Software Package