Peripheral arterial disease increases cardiovascular disease risk: Study

Most patients don't suspect a thing, and yet they are seriously ill: hardening of the arteries - peripheral arterial disease PAD - doubles the risk of premature death and serious cardiovascular events such as heart attack and stroke. This result of the five-year follow-up to the study getABI

Simple test must be made standard

Almost 7,000 patients over 65 were included in the getABI study in 2001. It turned out that one in five of them suffered from hardening of the arteries. It is detected by determining the ankle brachial index (ABI), a comparison between the patient's arterial blood pressure in the arms and ankles when lying. If the difference is large, vessels are blocked, and this mostly applies to the whole body - including the coronary and cerebral vessels. The risk of premature death, a heart attack or stroke is twice as high for the patients affected as for others, and they usually know nothing about it. Because in many cases the disease has no symptoms. The specialists of the getABI study, which is coordinated by Prof. Trampisch in Bochum, therefore strongly urge that the simple ABI examination be introduced as standard for elderly patients at their GP.