Peripheral Artery Diseases

Abstract

Peripheral arterial diseases (PADs) compromise blood flow to the limbs. Common causes of arterial obstruction include atherosclerosis, thrombus, embolism, vasculitis, arterial entrapment, adventitial cysts, fibromuscular dysplasia, arterial dissection, trauma, and vasospasm. The most frequently encountered cause of PAD is peripheral atherosclerosis. This chapter considers its epidemiology and risk factors, as well as its diagnosis, including clinical presentation and noninvasive diagnostic tests. This chapter also discusses acute arterial occlusion, atheroembolism, popliteal artery entrapment, thromboangiitis obliterans, and acrocyanosis, as well as the etiology, diagnosis, and treatment of Raynaud phenomenon. The chapter contains 4 tables and 7 figures. Tables describe the Fontaine classification and clinical categories of chronic limb ischemia, provide examples of leg segmental pressure measurements in a patient with calf claudication and foot pain, and summarize secondary causes of Raynaud phenomenon. Figures include a photograph of an ischemic foot demonstrating dependent rubor, measurement of the ankle:brachial index, ultrasonography of a stenosis of the right common femoral artery, magnetic resonance angiograms of patients with calf claudication, arteriograms of critical ischemia of the foot and of disabling claudication of the leg, and ischemia of the toes caused by atheroemboli. This chapter contains 80 references.