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So, what is peripheral vascular disease? Well, first of all, vascular disease refers to any
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problem with the vasculature of the body. Those would be the arteries and veins.
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Peripheral is to distinguish it from two other vascular beds in the body. The main three vascular
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beds in the body would be the cerebral, or vascular bed of the brain, the coronary vascular
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bed, which feeds the heart, and then, the vascular bed which feeds everything else,
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the rest of the body.
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So vascular disease is really talking about the disease which affects the vasculature
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of the rest of the body, from the most part, our lower extremities and legs. It can be
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caused by a lot of the same things that cause the cerebral vascular disease or the coronary
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vascular disease. That would be the buildup of cholesterol plaque within those arteries.
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For the most part, they have a lot of the same risk factors as the cerebral and coronary vascular disease does.
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That would be smoking, lack of exercise, increased blood pressure and cholesterol.
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For peripheral vascular disease, however, smoking, plays a large factor.
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So, how do you know if you have peripheral vascular disease? Oftentimes, you can note
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that in one of two ways. One would be lower extremity cramping or pain, which we call
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claudication with walking. Another way may be to see that the signs of decreased blood
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flow to the legs or feet. That would be cold or cool feet, or hair loss on the lower extremities,
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or a change in color of the feet or toes. The most common symptom would be claudication,
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which is a leg cramping during walking.
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The best thing to do would be to see your doctor. Your doctor can order a pretty simple
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test, which we call a lower extremity vascular study or a peripheral artery study. The test
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starts off with something called an ankle brachial index, which is just a simple measure
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of the blood pressure difference between the arms, or upper extremity, and the legs. It
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can be done with a simple 15 minute in-office procedure. It's pretty painless and will tell
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the doctor right away if there's any problems with the vasculature in your legs.
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So, how do we treat peripheral artery disease? It would be going back to the basic lifestyle
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modifications; stopping smoking, reducing your blood pressure, and treating high cholesterol.
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Another very important way we treat peripheral artery disease would be to increase the amount
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of exercise that you do. And that's the basic things you need to know about peripheral artery disease.