Below the knee Peripheral Arterial Disease

Mild pain and fatigue in legs and calves during a long walk is easily dismissed and it usually goes away when you sit down. It’s only human to disregard this discomfort and chalk it up to exercising too much or not enough, but should you? The pain could be the body’s way of telling you something about the health of its arteries.

Think of your arteries as an underground rail system, allowing oxygen- and nutrient-rich blood pumped from the heart to flow from the main railway — the aorta — to a growing network of arteries reaching through the arms, hands, legs and feet. As we age, these pathways can become blocked, hardening into plaque, which builds up in the walls of our arteries. This sticky plaque, made up of cholesterol, calcium, and fibrous tissue, causes atherosclerosis — a hardening of the arteries which prevents blood from travelling freely. When this occurs in the extremities — or the peripheral blood vessels — it is called peripheral arterial disease (PAD).

At its worst, PAD can cause continuous pain and tingling in the feet, calves and toes so severe that the light weight of a bed sheet increases irritation. Other progressive symptoms include shrinking calf muscles, thickening of toenails, tight skin, and hair loss and ulcers on the feet and toes. When our arteries are not supplying our legs, calves and feet with the rich blood that they need, people with PAD are at risk for strokes, high blood pressure, kidney problems and even amputation of the limbs.

Risk factors such as smoking, diabetes, unhealthy cholesterol and lipid levels, hypertension, family history of heart and artery disease, and artery inflammation may increase the risk of heart or circulatory disease.

Types of tests for PAD include an angiogram or echocardiogram to determine the extent of the blockage. ICE is equipped with the technology and science to find the cause of the pain, identify your risk factors and care for not only the disease, but your whole body — from head to heart to toe.

30,000,000

The number of people affected by PAD worldwide

65

The age when PAD becomes most common

20%

The percent of adults over age 65 who are affected by the disease

1 in 3

The number of Americans over 50 with diabetes who have PAD

Source: Cookmedical.com