Your Feet Hold Clues to Clogged Arteries | Health Essentials from Cleveland Clinic

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Your Feet Hold Clues to Clogged Arteries

July 23, 2015 / By Daniel Clair, MD

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Your Feet Hold Clues to Clogged Arteries | Health Essentials from Cleveland Clinic

Peripheral artery disease

(PAD) is a buildup of choleserol and plaque in the arteries that lead to the extremities. PAD can cause
discomfort in your legs and feet, limit your walking and activities, or severe PAD can progress to loss of

limb. Your doctor can

check for signs of the disease with a simple tes

of pulses in your feet.

When choleserol buildup blocks the arteries to your heart, we call this condition coronary artery disease (CAD). In reality, PAD
and CAD are associated with a single disease, atherosclerosis, which is a buildup of choleserol in the arteries throughout the
body. Sometimes the presence of PAD indicates an increased risk for heart disease, so screening and awareness of the connection
between PAD and CAD is important.

Checking for pulses in your feet

The simples tes to screen for PAD is to have your physician check for the pulses in your feet during a routine physical exam. In
each foot, there should be two pulses that are easily detected by a trained physician. This tes is performed to determine whether
the blood fow to

your feet is normal.

The next sep in screening is the ankle brachial index,

which uses blood pressure cufs on your arm and leg in combination with

a
Doppler probe, which uses an ultrasound wave, to help us hear the pulse in the foot. Using this technology, we can better assess

http://health.clevelandclinic.org/2015/07/your-feet-hold-clues-to-clogged-arteries/[8/30/2015 11:10:13 PM]

Your Feet Hold Clues to Clogged Arteries | Health Essentials from Cleveland Clinic

the blood

fow to the area. For mos people, blood pressure in the foot should be

similar to the blood pressure in the arm. A drop of

as little as 10 percent in that pressure can be an indication of peripheral artery disease.

Generic screenings could ofer false positives

You might have encountered ofers for comprehensive screening/tesing at community events, ofered by for-proft companies,
or surgical or interventional groups. These screenings often cover a wide range of conditions everything from oseoporosis to

coronary artery disease. You are probably better of being seen by your primary care doctor, who knows you bes, to fnd out

whether you ought to have a specifc tes performed. Theres no proof of beneft to generic tesing, and it can have unforeseen
consequences, including false positive results that put you at risk for other invasive, unnecessary procedures.

Signs of a problem
People whose legs are painful or get tired easily or who have trouble walking disances should have an assessment for PAD.
Current or pas smokers, or anyone with a family hisory of PAD or symptoms of the disease, should also be assessed.

No symptoms, no tesing needed

Screening for PAD probably doesnt make sense for a healthy individual without symptoms, who is younger than 60 years old,
has never

smoked and has no family hisory of atherosclerosis or heart disease.

In this case, screening may actually expose a patient to more risk. This is because the tess can occasionally be incorrect and lead
to much

more invasive tesing, which has its own inherent risks.

PAD may afect the whole body

Its important to remember that atherosclerosis is not a localized process; it is a sysemic disease that afects the arteries
everywhere in the body.

Medication and lifesyle changes,

including sopping smoking, are very important for patients who have any evidence of a
decrease in the blood fow in their legs and feet.
Tags: atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease, feet, foot health, heart and vascular insitute, peripheral artery disease, pulse

Daniel Clair, MD

Daniel Clair, MD, is Chairman of the Department of Vascular Surgery at

Cleveland Clinic. In 2007, Dr. Clair was

named one of Americas Top Doctors.

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Your Feet Hold Clues to Clogged Arteries | Health Essentials from Cleveland Clinic

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Your Feet Hold Clues to Clogged Arteries | Health Essentials from Cleveland Clinic

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