Understanding PAD Treatment with CardioVascular Health Clinic 

Expert vascular care close to home. 

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is a circulatory condition that affects about 10% of the population 65 and older each year.

Although some who live with the disease may not experience symptoms, 30% to 40% of those with a moderate to severe PAD diagnosis will. 

PAD symptoms are often overlooked or attributed to outside lifestyle factors such as aging or inactivity. 

However, if you are experiencing unusual or new leg-related problems, getting proper consultation, diagnosis, and peripheral artery disease treatment (PAD) from an expert team of cardiovascular specialists is best.

If you’ve been recently diagnosed with PAD and are living in Oklahoma, we are here to help.

Our Cardiovascular Health Clinic team can help reduce chronic symptoms and decrease your risk for complications that could lead to amputation. We use state-of-the-art diagnostic and PAD treatment options that do not require extensive hospital stays or healing time. 

Let’s explore PAD in more detail, including its symptoms, risk factors, treatment options, and prevention steps.

First, What Is PAD?

PAD, or peripheral artery disease, is a circulatory disease that occurs when narrowed arteries in the legs reduce blood flow.

The body cannot keep up with its standard demands with narrowed arteries, leading to various symptoms such as leg pain, discoloration, and sensitivity. 

It is important to note that in rarer cases, PAD can affect the circulation in your arms.

Causes

The most common cause of PAD is plaque buildup in a patient’s arteries. 

Plaque consists of cholesterol, calcium, fibrin, and fatty substances, which all cause the arteries to narrow and harden over time. 

A blocked artery reduces blood flow to vital organs and limbs, preventing them from keeping up with the body’s demands.

Since plaque narrows arteries and prevents blood flow, a blood clot can develop, resulting in a heart attack or stroke. 

Other less common causes of PAD include:

• Blood vessel inflammation
• Injury to a limb
• Radiation exposure

Signs and Symptoms 

Because of the slow progression PAD often takes, it may be hard to nail down symptoms immediately.

People with PAD may experience mild cramping and leg pain during physical activity. This pain typically goes away with rest but returns once activity is resumed. Other common symptoms of PAD include coldness or numbness in the legs and feet, and discoloration or cramping in the hips, thighs, or calves.

The most common symptoms of PAD include:

• Coldness or numbness of the legs and feet
• Discoloration in the legs
• Cramping of the hips, thighs, or calves
• Difficulty healing from minor wounds on the limbs
• Burning or aching sensation
• Poor toenail growth
• Slowed hair growth on the limbs
• Erectile dysfunction in men

Worried about PAD? Take our PAD Risk assessment.

With simple diagnostic testing and minimally invasive PAD treatment options available, there is no need to avoid activities you love to prevent symptoms.

Risk Factors

PAD can affect anyone anytime, but certain factors may increase your risk of developing this disease.

Smokers and those with diabetes have the highest risk of developing PAD. 

Other risk factors include:

• A family history of PAD, heart disease, or stroke
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Obesity
• Smoking
• Diabetes
• Age, especially those over 65
• An increased level of homocysteine

PAD Diagnosis

To diagnose PAD, the physician will begin by taking a complete medical history and physical exam. 

Several tests may be used to diagnose PAD, including:

• Ankle-Brachial Index (ABI)
• Angiography
• Doppler ultrasound
• Measuring the pulses in your legs and feet
• Pulse Volume Recording (PVR)

We offer a broad spectrum of diagnostic testing in our facility at your appointment. This allows you to complete an entire workup in a single visit and provides less cost to our patients when compared to having testing performed in a hospital setting.

If you suspect you may have PAD, getting a proper diagnosis and treatment right away is critical to avoid long-term adverse complications. 

PAD Complications

If left untreated, peripheral artery disease could result in severe and life-threatening complications, including:

• Heart attack
• Stroke
• Gangrene
• Critical limb ischemia
• Limb loss through amputation

Peripheral Artery Disease Treatment

Our facility uses state-of-the-art PAD treatment procedures. We carefully evaluate each patient to create an individualized treatment plan. Our treatment goals are to manage symptoms and stop PAD progression.

• Manage symptoms, such as leg pain, so that you can resume physical activities to improve mobility and overall quality of life, and 
  
• Stop PAD progression throughout your body to reduce your heart attack and stroke risk and prevent complications. 

PAD treatment is based on your unique signs and symptoms, risk factors, and the results of physical exams and tests.

Common treatment options include:

• Angioplasty – the use of a balloon catheter to open up a narrowing blood vessel.
• Thrombectomy – a process in which a thrombus (or clot) is mechanically removed from the body using specialized equipment.
• Atherectomy – the mechanical removal of atheroma or atherosclerosis from the inside of the vessels in the body, using specialized catheters and equipment.
• Stenting – a small metal scaffold that can be placed to maximize the inner diameter of vessels and help keep them open.

Advanced PAD Treatment in Oklahoma

At Advanced Interventional Radiology Solutions and CardioVascular Health Clinic, we have pioneered a new endovascularization therapy for peripheral artery disease patients. 

Our physicians can access the small arteries in your ankle to perform their treatment, allowing them to have some of the highest national success rates. 

Medical professionals from all over the country visit our facility to learn this leading-edge technique.

We are dedicated to limb salvage and amputation prevention. We are the only endovascular specialist that routinely and successfully treats the small arteries below your knee and within your feet.

Contact us today to learn more about PAD treatment or to schedule a consultation.