ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is the peripheral manifestation of atherosclerosis and affects over eight million Americans. The most common symptoms of PAD are intermittent claudication and critical leg ischemia (CLI). CLI is limb threatening; symptoms manifest as rest pain and tissue loss, including nonhealing ulcers and gangrene. Of paramount importance, patients with PAD are not only at risk of limb loss but also at increased risk of cardiac and cerebral morbidity and mortality. Patients with PAD have a mortality of 4.8% per year, a 2.5-fold rise in risk from age-matched controls. In patients with known coronary artery disease (CAD), the presence of PAD is an independent risk factor for death, raising the risk 25% even when other known risk factors are controlled (1).
