Peripheral Artery Disease

What is Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD)?

Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) is plaque buildup in your arteries. Your arteries carry oxygen and nutrient-rich blood from your heart to your arms and legs. Shaped like hollow tubes, arteries have a smooth lining that prevents blood from clotting and promotes steady blood flow. When you have peripheral artery disease, plaque (made of fat, cholesterol and other substances) forms gradually inside your artery walls. Slowly, this narrows your arteries.

Many plaque deposits are hard on the outside and soft on the inside. The hard surface can crack or tear, allowing platelets (disc-shaped particles in your blood that help it clot) to come to the area. Blood clots can form around the plaque, making your artery even narrower. If plaque or a blood clot narrows or blocks your arteries, blood can’t get through to nourish organs and other tissues. This causes damage to the tissues below the blockage. This happens most often in your toes and feet.

How does PAD affect the body?

The typical symptom of PAD is called claudication, a medical term for pain in your leg that starts with walking or exercise and goes away with rest. The pain occurs because your leg muscles aren’t getting enough oxygen.The dangers of PAD extend well beyond difficulties in walking. Peripheral artery disease increases the risk of getting a nonhealing sore of your legs or feet. In cases of severe PAD, these sores can turn into areas of dead tissue (gangrene) that make it necessary to remove your foot or leg.

What are the typical symptoms of peripheral artery disease?

Symptoms of peripheral artery disease include:a burning or aching pain in your feet and toes while resting (especially at night while lying flat), cool skin on your feet, redness or other color changes of your skin, more frequent skin and soft tissue infections (usually in your feet or legs)and toe and foot sores that don’t heal.Half of the people who have peripheral vascular disease don’t have symptoms. PAD can build up over a lifetime. Symptoms may not become obvious until later in life. Early detection of PAD is important so you can begin the right treatments before the disease becomes severe enough to lead to complications like a heart attack or stroke.

Is a PAD Screening right for me?

If you are under 50 years of age, have diabetes and either a history of smoking, abnormal cholesterol or high blood pressure, a PAD screening may benefit you.

What are the risk factors for peripheral artery disease?

Tobacco use is the most important risk factor for PAD and its complications. Regardless of your sex, you’re at risk of developing peripheral arterial disease when you have one or more of these risk factors:

• Using tobacco products (the most potent risk factor)
• Having diabetes
• Being age 50 and older
• Being African American
• Having a personal or family history of heart or blood vessel disease
• Having high blood pressure (hypertension)
• Having high cholesterol (hyperlipidemia)
• Having abdominal obesity
• Having a blood clotting disorder
• Having kidney disease (both a risk factor and a consequence of PAD)

Schedule a FREE PAD screening today! The screening takes 20-30 minutes to complete, and you will only need to remove your shoes and socks. To schedule a PAD screening, please call 321-268-6150.