Peripheral Vascular Disease, also called PAD (peripheral arterial disease), is characterized primarily by issues with bloodflow to the legs, leading to claudication (pain with walking distances that ameliorates with resting), but there are other aspects of this condition which include carotid artery disease and aortic aneurysm.
To determine who is at risk we generally look to risk factors the predispose to these issues and a new study in the JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) confirms the four major risk factors. They are: smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes. A combination of these conditions markedly increases risk for developing PAD. The hope is that agressive risk factor modification will reduce this risk with time.
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