ABSTRACT
At least 10 million people in the United States have peripheral artery disease, or PAD, which consists of partial or complete atherosclerotic obstruction of peripheral arteries, typically defined as those arteries supplying the lower extremities. PAD has important morbidity and mortality implications, although the number of deaths directly ascribed to PAD is comparatively modest. Symptomatic disease affects quality of life and function by causing pain and restricting ambulation. Most existing evidence suggests that PAD confers independent increased risk for CAD and CBVD in addition to that expected by concomitant major coronary risk factors. PAD may confer this increased risk by serving as a proxy for the actions of unmeasured or unadjusted risk factors and as a marker of ongoing disease. Moreover, PAD has similar prognostic implications, predicting increased risk of CAD and CBVD events for those with and without previously identified CAD and CBVD.
