September 21, 2007, ST. LOUIS – It may not be as top of mind as heart disease or breast cancer, but peripheral artery disease – or PAD – affects over eight million patients a year.

If untreated, it can result in limb amputation, stroke, heart attack or death due to the risk of blood clots. Doctors are concerned the number of afflicted patients with PAD is on the rise and are using National Vascular Disease Awareness Month in September to get the message out.

"The numbers of patients with peripheral vascular disease is just exploding," says Patrick Geraghty, MD, vascular surgeon at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. "As diabetes gets more prevalent in our population with a combination of so many who''ve been smoking for decades, there are so many at risk."

Those risk factors can lead to PAD, which is similar to heart disease, instead it affects the leg arteries instead of the heart. Dr. Geraghty says one of the most common symptoms is claudication.

"Claudication is usually felt as a cramping of the muscles in the posterior calf with walking that''s fairly reproducible," says Dr. Geraghty. "It can be very limiting and it can affect some patients when they walk 50 feet."

To help patients get back on their feet, Dr. Geraghty usually gets patients on a program of a healthy diet, exercise and medications.

"We usually send patients out on that exercise program with the medications and see what their response is," he says. "Based on the severity of the symptoms and whether they respond to that, then we may work them up for intervention."

Dr. Geraghty says interventions usually mean minimally invasive procedures such as angioplasty to open the clogged leg artery and restore blood flow.

If recommendations like a healthy diet, exercise and a smoke-free life sound familiar, Dr. Geraghty says that''s because it is.

"Really for prevention, everything you look at as a heart healthy choice is also healthy for your peripheral arteries," he says.

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