Peripheral artery disease of the legs - the current state

Objective: Coronary artery disease changes over time. It is unknown how the peripheral artery disease of the legs has changed. Methods, the group: We used the medical records of our office to select patients with peripheral artery disease of the legs. The patients underwent clinical assessments including duplex sonography, and their blood pressure at the ankle was measured and expressed as ABI index. Further development of the clinical condition was then followed at subsequent visits. Worsening was defined as worsening of intermittent claudication and/or development of critical limb ischemia. We compared our findings to the results of previous as well as current studies. Results: The group comprised 406 patients including 38.7% females. Atherosclerosis was the cause of the disease in all patients. Mean age was 69.5 years (range 40-90); 75% patients had hypertension, 33% had diabetes mellitus, and 53.5% were smokers. History of revascularization was reported by 14% patients. Intermittent claudication was reported by 63% patients. We followed 189 patients for more than 1 year, 5.6 years on average. Their age and risk factors were similar to those of the entire group. Clinical worsening was experienced by 15.9% patients. Claudication worsened in 13.2% patients, critical ischemia occurred 5.3% and amputation in 1.06%. Revascularization was performed in 28% patients. One hundred forty-four patients of the entire group died; of these, 43.7 died from cardiovascular causes and 27.1 of cancer. Conclusion: Peripheral artery disease of the legs affects persons of higher age compared to previous times and the proportion of women has increased. The patients show a higher rate of risk factors of atherosclerosis compared to those with coronary artery disease. Thanks to the current care, although certainly not optimal, the course of the disease is less severe than 50 years ago. In our patients, claudication worsening was observed less commonly and the rate of amputations decreased. The number of deaths attributable to cardiovascular diseases in patients with peripheral artery disease of the legs has decreased.