Peripheral Artery Disease

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symptoms and diagnosis

The first signs of PAD may be similar to Frances'experience: painful hip or leg cramps while walking, climbing stairs, or exercising. The pain, called claudication, occurs when cholesterol deposits block arteries and plaque builds up, preventing blood and oxygen from reaching muscles.
           
PAD leg pain often disappears when people rest for a minute or two. “People tend to ignore the pain because they think it’s a pulled muscle or a part of getting older, but it’s not,” Flinn says. “Get it checked. Things can be done to make it better.”
           
To look for narrowed leg arteries, a doctor will check a limb’s pulse and listen to its arterial flow with a stethoscope. A specific test, the ankle brachial index (ABI), is performed with an instrument that measures the blood pressure in the leg and compares it to blood pressure in the arm. “If, for example, your normal blood pressure is 120 systolic and your ankle blood pressure is 60, that signals a significant blockage,” Flinn says.