Peripheral Arterial Disease in the Elderly

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is most commonly caused by atherosclerotic lesions developing in the intimal region of arteries in the lower and upper extremities. The term also includes patients with aortoiliac disease. Claudication, the Latin word for limp, denotes pain or discomfort in a specific muscle group of an extremity with exercise and occurs in approximately one-third of patients with PAD. It is estimated that 8 million people in the United States have PAD and the majority who have claudication are elderly ( 1 , 2 ). The PAD Awareness, Risk and Treatment: New Resources for Survival (PARTNERS) study involved screening patients older than age 70 and older than age 50 years if there was a history of smoking or diabetes ( 3 ). The prevalence of PAD alone was 13% and the combination of PAD and coronary artery disease (CAD) was 29% in PARTNERS. The following details the diagnosis and management of PAD. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.