Cardiovascular Gram WINTER/SPRING 2008 A NEWSLETTER TO PHYSICIANS FROM THE PAT AND JIM CALHOUN CARDIOLOGY CENTER AT UCONN HEALTH CENTER VOLUME 7 WINTER/SPRING 2008 PAD: Peripheral Arterial Disease and Public Awareness Deficiency

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is an umbrella term that describes a multitude of conditions that affect the systemic vasculature, including carotid, upper extremity, renal, pelvic, and lower extremity arterial beds. The most commonly encountered etiology of PAD is atherosclerotic, with risk factors similar to those encountered in atherosclerotic coronary disease. The clinical presentations of patients with PAD are functions of the vascular territory at risk. They include transient ischemic attack and stroke, arm claudication, vertebral artery insufficiency, hypertension, angina, pulmonary edema, renal failure, and leg claudication, and asymptomatic discovery, among others. Patients with PAD suffer high rates of disability from their disease as well as a markedly increased risk of premature death from cardiovascular disease compared to the age-matched controls. Unfortunately, most patients are unaware of PAD. A recent study of 2500 randomly selected people showed that only 25 % of respondents were familiar with PAD, a rate lower than for any other cardiovascular disease o