BMC Public Health Study protocol Peripheral Arterial Disease Study (PERART): Prevalence and predictive values of asymptomatic peripheral arterial occlusive disease related to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality María Teresa Alzamora*1,2,3, José Miguel Baena-Díez4, Marta Sorribes5, Rosa Forés1, Pere Toran3, Marisa Vicheto1, Guillem Pera3, María Dolores Reina6, Carlos Albaladejo7, Judith Llussà8, Magda Bundó9, Amparo Sancho10, Antonio Heras1, Joan Rubiés2,6, Juan Francisco Arenillas11 for the PERART study BioMed Central Open Access Address: 1Primary Healthcare Centre Riu Nord-Riu Sud, Institut Català de la Salut, Santa Coloma de Gramenet,, Spain, 2Department of Medicine, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain, 3Research Unit Barcelonés Nord Maresme. ICS-IDIAP Jordi Gol. Mataró, Spain, 4Primary Healthcare Centre La Marina, Institut Català de la Salut, Barcelona, Spain, 5Primary Healthcare Centre Numància, Institut Català de la Salut, Barcelona, Spain, 6Primary Healthcare Centre Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Institut Català de la Salut, Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Spain, 7Primary Healthcare Centre Llefià, Institut Català de la Salut Badalona, Spain, 8Primary Healthcare Centre Sant Roc, Institut Català de la Salut, Badalona, Spain, 9Primary Healthcare Centre Ronda Prim, Institut Català de la Salut, Mataró, Spain, 10Primary Healthcare Centre Can Mariné, Institut Català de la Salut, Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Spain and 11Unitat de Neurociències. Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol. Institut Català de la Salut. Badalona, Spain Email: María Teresa Alzamora* - mtalzamora.bnm.ics@gencat.net; José Miguel Baena-Díez - jbaenad@meditex.es; Marta Sorribes - martasorribes.pbcn@ics.scs.es; Rosa Forés - rfores.bnm.ics@gencat.net; Pere Toran - ptoran.bnm.ics@gencat.net; Marisa Vicheto - mvicheto@gmail.com; Guillem Pera - gpera.bnm.ics@gencat.net; María Dolores Reina - dreina.bnm.ics@gencat.net; Carlos Albaladejo - 24270cab@comb.es; Judith Llussà - jllussa.bnm.ics@gencat.net; Magda Bundó - mbundo.bnm.ics@gencat.net; Amparo Sancho - asanchop.bnm.ics@gencat.net; Antonio Heras - aheras.bnm.ics@gencat.net; Joan Rubiés - jrubiesp@searteriosclerosis.org; Juan Francisco Arenillas - juanfarenillas@gmail.com * Corresponding author Published: 11 December 2007 BMC Public Health 2007, 7:348 doi:10.1186/1471-2458-7-348 This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/7/348 Received: 22 August 2007 Accepted: 11 December 2007 © 2007 Alzamora et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Background: The early diagnosis of atherosclerotic disease is essential for developing preventive strategies in populations at high risk and acting when the disease is still asymptomatic. A low ankle- arm index (AAI) is a good marker of vascular events and may be diminished without presenting symptomatology (silent peripheral arterial disease). The aim of the PERART study (PERipheral ARTerial disease) is to determine the prevalence of peripheral arterial disease (both silent and symptomatic) in a general population of both sexes and determine its predictive value related to morbimortality (cohort study). Methods/Design: This cross-over, cohort study consists of 2 phases: firstly a descriptive, transversal cross-over study to determine the prevalence of peripheral arterial disease, and secondly, a cohort study to evaluate the predictive value of AAI in relation to cardiovascular morbimortality. From September 2006 to June 2007, a total of 3,010 patients over the age of 50 years will be randomly selected from a population adscribed to 24 healthcare centres in the province of Barcelona (Spain). Page 1 of 7 (page number not for citation purposes)