the Society of Interventional Radiology

PERIPHERAL vascular disease (PVD), also known as peripheral arterial dis-ease, affects more than 8–10 million Americans, and its incidence is grow-ing annually (1). PVD is a risk marker for coronary disease, cerebrovascular disease, aneurysmal disease, diabetes, hypertension, and many other condi-tions. Patients with objectively docu-mented PVD have a four- to six-fold increase in cardiovascular mortality rate over healthy age-matched indi-viduals (2). Fifty percent of people with PVD are symptomatic (3). One of the simplest and most useful parame