Peripheral Arterial Disease

In peripheral arterial disease (formerly called peripheral vascular disease) there is a sufficient flow of blood in the legs. This is usually caused by atherosclerosis, which fatty deposits, referred to as plaques, build up along the walls of blood vessels, reducing the vessel size and reducing the amount of blood that can pass. The most common symptom is intermittent claudication, which causes a cramp-like pain in the legs or buttocks when you exercise and disappears when it is at rest. Risk factors for peripheral arterial disease are similar to risk factors for coronary heart disease and include:

• Smoking cigarettes or consume other forms of tobacco (such as snuff and chewing tobacco)

• Level abnormally high cholesterol (hypercholesterolemia)

• abnormally low level of high density lipoproteins (HDL, the good cholesterol)

• High blood pressure (hypertension)

• Diabetes

• Family history of cardiovascular disease

• Obesity

• Physical inactivity (very little regular exercise)

• Kidney disease

• Race (blacks seem to have a higher risk of developing the disease)

Prevention

You can help prevent peripheral arterial disease through modification of risk factors:

• Do not smoke. This is an important risk factor that can control.

• Maintain a healthy weight. Obesity, especially the concentration of fat around the waist, have been associated with unhealthy blood levels of cholesterol and other fats which may accumulate within the arteries.

• Maintain a healthy diet. Your diet should be rich in vegetables and fruit should have a low content of saturated fat.

• Exercise regularly. Ideally, it must exercise every day for 45 minutes or more.

• Reduce blood pressure. Medications may be required to maintain a healthy lifestyle is not enough.

Treatment

The treatment of peripheral arterial disease includes:

• Modification of risk factors. The fact that quitting smoking can reduce the symptoms of intermittent claudication and may decrease the likelihood of disease worsening. It is also important to reduce cholesterol levels if they are high, maintain blood pressure within normal limits and maintain well-controlled diabetes. Talk to your doctor about the best way to achieve this.

• Exercise Programs. Studies have shown that people who exercise can almost double the distance they can walk before you start to feel pain in the legs. Try to exercise for at least 30 minutes every day. You may need to take frequent breaks to feel pain in the legs, but if I have to stop every few minutes, do not give up, because any activity is very beneficial. Many people prefer to run and find that walking on the track or on a treadmill is easier than walking on pavement. You can also try cycling (stationary or normal) and swim.

• Medicines. Even if we do exercise and modify their risk factors, medications can help you achieve greater relief of symptoms and slow the progression of the disease. The doctor will probably advise you to take aspirin every day or are taking another medicine to prevent blood clotting, such as clopidogrel. Medications such as cilostazol and pentoxifylline may also help reduce the symptoms of intermittent claudication.

• Procedures for revascularization. The objective is to improve the circulation revascularization, whether through the opening of the narrowed artery either by pontagem (bypass) the narrowed section of the artery. These operations include surgical and non-surgical techniques and are used in people who have severe symptoms or progressive or leg pain which occurs at rest. The most common non-surgical intervention is percutaneous transluminal angioplasty, also called balloon angioplasty. In this intervention, a catheter is inserted in the narrowed artery and a small balloon situated on the end is inflated to open the vessel narrowed. Often called metallic stent implant is used as a support frame of the artery wall after it is opened with the balloon. In some people, the vessel be exceeded surgically narrowed using a pontagem (bypass) with a section of a vein taken from the leg or with a synthetic graft.