Peripheral arterial disease/ intermittent claudication

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a common circulatory problem characterised by obstruction of blood flow in the arteries outside of the heart and brain. It is usually caused by atherosclerosis, a hardening and narrowing of the arteries. As atherosclerosis is a systemic disease process, many patients with PAD also have coronary artery and cerebrovascular disease (Norgren et al., 2007). For the purpose of this chapter, PAD refers to advanced arterial atherosclerosis of the lower-limbs