5 Discussion
The diameter characteristics of the distal radial artery is very important for the dTRA, that can help clinicians to select the patients who is suitable for the dTRA.
There may be differences in the diameter of the distal radial artery in different population. In the PubMed database, we retrieved 10 articles that had published before 14 February 2022 and had reported the diameter of the distal radial artery by ultrasound measurement(6, 10, 11, 13-19), Table 3. As we can see from the table, the diameter of the distal radial artery ranges from 1.70 ± 0.5mm to 2.99 ± 0.60mm. Lee et al.’s study [11] showed that the mean distal radial artery diameters were 2.43 ± 0.44 mm (men), and 2.15 ± 0.38 mm (women) in the right hand and 2.47 ± 0.45 mm (men), and 2.18 ± 0.39 mm (women) in the left hand. And the distal radial artery of women were significantly smaller than men (P < 0.001). Meo et al.’s study[10] showed that mean distal radial artery diameters of males were 2.124 ± 0.544 mm, while the mean distal radial artery diameters of females were 1.834 ± 0.460 mm. Males have a larger caliber of distal radial artery (p < 0.001). In our study, the diameter of the distal radial artery in males and females was 0.217 ± 0.031, 0.198 ± 0.033, respectly (P = 0.003).
It’s necessary to find the related factors and independent predictors of the diameter of the distal radial artery. Lee et al.’s study(11) demonstrated that female gender, low BMI, and low BSA were significant predictors of the distal radial artery diameter < 2.3 mm. Meo et al.’s study [10] showed that among factors, such as gender, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, BMI > 30 kg/m2, and diabetes, BMI and male gender were related factors of distal radial artery diameter, and men with BMI > 30 kg/m2 had a larger distal radial artery diameter. In our study, male, height ≥ 160 cm, weight ≥ 63 kg, BMI ≥ 24 kg/m2, and BSA ≥ 1.6573 m2 were the related factors of the distal radial artery diameter ≥ 2.0586 mm, and male gender and BMI ≥ 24 kg/m2 were its independent predictors.