What is peripheral vascular disease?
Atherosclerosis is a systemic disease that affects all the arteries, and patients who have coronary artery disease also have a higher likelihood of having peripheral vascular disease. Just as the coronary arteries can become diseased with cholesterol plaque that affects the inner lining of the artery and causes narrowing of the channel, the arteries of the lower (and more rarely, upper) extremities can become laden with cholesterol plaque. This causes arterial insufficiency, or “poor circulation” to the legs. The classic symptoms of peripheral vascular disease include pain in the calves, thigh, or buttocks during walking (claudication), which subsides after ceasing walking. As the disease progresses, there is gradual loss of muscle tissue, thickening of the toe nail beds, and thickening and brownish pigmentation of the skin overlying the shins. In advanced cases, there may be pain in the feet even at rest. This is typically noticed more at night, when the feet are at a horizontal posit
Peripheral vascular disease (PVD) has been receiving increasing attention in the news in recent years, with the growing knowledge in the medical community that this disease has been in the past seriously under-diagnosed and under-treated. Recent studies suggest that physicians have tended to overlook the disease due to its protean manifestations. One multicenter study concluded that although prevalence of PVD in primary care practices was high, physician awareness of the disease was relatively low. Patients seemed to have a higher awareness of their vascular condition than their physicians did. PVD in the U.S. is estimated to affect 8 to 12 million patients a year; some experts in the field believe this might be an under-estimate. The disease is associated with significant cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, with a high rate of fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular events such as MI, stroke, and progressive ischemic end-organ dysfunction. Since atherosclerosis is the most common cause
Like the heart arteries plaque can build up in any artery of the body. PVD is plaque build up in the arteries supplying blood to the arms, leg and brain. Risk factors that contribute to PVD are smoking, high blood pressure, family history, high cholesterol, and diabetes. Symptoms of PVD to the legs are claudication (pain in the legs especially when walking that is relieved when resting), numbness or tingling in the legs or feet, coldness in the legs or feet, and/or ulcers of the legs or feet that do not heal. The non-surgical treatment for peripheral vascular disease is balloon angioplasty and stenting.
This refers to diseases of blood vessels outside the heart and brain. It’s often a narrowing of vessels that carry blood to the legs, arms, stomach or kidneys. There are two types of these circulation disorders: • Functional peripheral vascular diseases don’t have an organic cause. They don’t involve defects in blood vessels’ structure. They’re usually short-term effects related to “spasm” that may come and go. Raynaud’s disease is an example. It can be triggered by cold temperatures, emotional stress, working with vibrating machinery or smoking. • Organic peripheral vascular diseases are caused by structural changes in the blood vessels, such as inflammation and tissue damage. Peripheral artery disease is an example. It’s caused by fatty buildups in arteries that block normal blood flow. What is peripheral artery disease? Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is a condition similar to coronary artery disease and carotid artery disease. In PAD, fatty deposits build up in the inner linings of
Peripheral vascular disease (PVD) refers to diseases of the blood vessels (arteries and veins) located outside the heart and brain. While there are many causes of peripheral vascular disease, doctors commonly use the term peripheral vascular disease to refer to peripheral artery disease (peripheral arterial disease, PAD), a condition that develops when the arteries that supply blood to the internal organs, arms, and legs become completely or partially blocked as a result of atherosclerosis. What is atherosclerosis? Atherosclerosis is a gradual process whereby hard cholesterol substances (plaques) are deposited in the walls of the arteries. Cholesterol plaques cause hardening of the artery walls and narrowing of the inner channel (lumen) of the artery. The atherosclerosis process begins early in life (as early as teens in some people). When atherosclerosis is mild and the arteries are not substantially narrowed, atherosclerosis causes no symptoms. Therefore many adults typically are una
