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Peripheral Arterial Disease: A Disease You Should Know About

Summary & Participants

What is peripheral artery disease (PAD) and why is it important? Watch this webcast to learn about its risk factors, such as smoking, diabetes, age, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, and how it is related to stroke and heart attack.

Medically Reviewed On: June 25, 2008

Webcast Transcript

DIANE TREAT-JACOBSON, PhD, RN:  Leg pain when you walk is not a normal sign of aging and should be investigated. It can be a sign of a dangerous disease that could lead to a heart attack, a stoke or severe disability.

ALAN HIRSCH, MD:  Like other illnesses that block the arteries in the body, peripheral arterial disease is develops slowly over three, five, ten or 20 years.  Initially there may be no symptoms whatsoever from the blockage to the leg arteries, although with time, the patient may develop a symptom called claudication.  Claudication is a discomfort that is sometimes described as a fatigue, a numbness, a cramping, or may actually be a severe pain that occurs in these muscles with walking and that is relieved when the patient stops to rest.  Unfortunately, when the patient begins to walk again, claudication reappears and limits the patient's ability to perform their activities of daily living.

ANNOUNCER:  Because PAD symptoms can be confused with symptoms from other conditions such as arthritis or sciatica, it’s important for patients to understand the distinction.

ALAN HIRSCH, MD:  One clue that a walking impairment is due to peripheral arterial disease is localization of the discomfort within the muscles of the calves or the thighs, or perhaps the buttocks.  In contrast, discomfort that's localized to the knee itself, to the hip joints or the foot is much more likely to represent arthritis or some other medical illness.

For patients with diabetes, many will be familiar with a symptom called neuropathy, which can be burning or painful discomfort of the feet or the thighs.  This, too, can sometimes mimic claudication.

At least half, and perhaps as many as 85 to 90% of individuals with PAD of significance may not recognize classical symptoms.  Thus, for these individuals who have blockages in their leg arteries, the easiest way for them to establish their PAD diagnosis is by performance of the ankle-brachial index or the ankle blood pressure measurement.

DIANE TREAT-JACOBSON, PhD, RN:  “you hear that, that’s your pulse, that’s your heart rate…”

ANNOUNCER: With this simple test, PAD can be detected early and treated appropriately.

And increased awareness of PAD and the ABI test can help prevent the incidence of heart attack, stroke, and even amputation.

Yet many people are still unaware of the prevalence of this disease and its serious consequences.

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